31 Aftermaths
by Lady Avarice
Summary: What happened after. Sequel to 31 Never Was.
1. Prologue

_With these choices _

_That we have made_

_All the gifts_

_Both taken an_

_We must abide_

_So please, tell me_

_What did you, yourself, decide?_

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

AN: you asked for it.


	2. Ch 1: A Good Dusting

Really, they had no idea just how much he had changed after Halloween.

Not mentally, not really.

But mystically…..

"You'd better rethink what you are doing, Hell Goddess."

"And what is a sniveling little meat sack like you going to do about it?"

The grin that splits his face is far from kind, puppy-brown eyes changing to glowing gold.

"First a correction, dust bag perhaps, but not meat sack. And second…."

An eerie howl splits the night as every last bit of loose sand, dust and dirt answers his call, swirling in a vortex around the two people, beings, standing in front of the ruined hotel.

If nothing else, Xander can respect Spike for keeping Dawn's secret through that kind of torture.

"I am going to _bury_ you."

The minions run around, not knowing what to do as the dervish speeds to killing force, better than any wall to keep the two separated from all outside help.

"I'll kill you!"

"You can't touch me."

The eyes glow brighter before his once solid form slips apart and joins the mass of spinning sand.

"What are you!?"

The howl sounds again, louder in the dervish and sending the first tendril of barely recognizable fear down the banished goddess' spine.

"_You would take what is not yours_

_So let this be your just reward_

_A body stolen is taken back_

_And all your gifts you'll sorely lack_

_Leave the human man unchained_

_And the Devil Goddess not remain_

_Glorifcus, I call you out_

_You'll hate Man's life without a doubt!_"

The Scoobies could only watch in awe as the dervish constricted on the trapped goddess as she tried to escape. Her scream was lost in the howling of the winds as the vortex collapsed on her.

Minutes later the sands and dust started to slither away, revealing the sleeping body of Ben behind.

The minions are only blots of quickly vanishing dark sand.

"He's safe now, she can't touch him again."

Somehow he's managed to come up behind them without them noticing.

"Xander, what?"

"It's ok, Buffy. Glory can't hurt anyone ever again. She's trapped on the mortal coil, living the lowest of lows until the End of All."

"But, how…."

"Xander, what, what happened?"

He offered Willow a small, sad smile.

"We are One now, the Coyote and me."

The sands around his feet kicked up as his form seemed to thin out and waver like a mirage in the desert.

"Will we ever see you again?"

"Of course Wills. You can't get rid of me that easily, not ever. I just need to go rest a while."

Just a shade was left, barely visible in the small whirlwind of sand.

"You will be missed, my boy."

"Thanks G-man. And Spike, you'd better protect them for me."

The vampire could only nod as the figure of Xander finally vanished in the sands, the dust rising into the sky as a howl split the night.

* * *

Dawn was troubled, sitting at home in her bed, Mr. Gordo pulled to her chest. She really hoped they could rescue Spike.

A soft scratching sound made her look at the door only to see nothing there. The sound came again followed by a soft hiss.

She watched, oddly detached as a small stream of sand slipped from the window sill to the floor until the pile looked to be a handful or two. The sand moved, shifted and stirred, a ghostly looking coyote rising from the bit of dust.

Dawn smiled.

"Xander?"

The coyote gave a soft yip and jumped up onto her bed.

"Did you save him?"

It gave a nod, seeming rather pleased with itself.

"Is she… is she gone?"

The coyote tilted its head back and gave a loud, joyous howl, looking rather smug.

"Are you going to go away then?"

The ghostly coyote seemed to smile and shook its head.

Dawn watched entranced as the form shrank and solidified until a small coyote cub sat on her bedspread. When she got over her shock and looked closely she noticed two important things.

Smiling she gathered the cub into her arms, cuddling and cooing until it was fast asleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Buffy wasn't sure what she was going to tell Dawn about Xander. They all knew how much of a crush she had on him, not to mention how close they both were.

"Dawnie…"

"Yeah, Buffy?"

They were all surprised when she poked her head out of the kitchen, seemingly back to the perky upbeat teen she was before the whole goddess fiasco.

A clatter came from the kitchen and she quickly turned around, vanishing back to whatever it was she was doing.

"Dawnie, Xander…"

"I know."

"You know!?"

"Yeah. I know. So we can skip the big awkward thing, right?"

They all stand there, staring as she pops back into the room with what looks like a puppy in her arms.

"Dawn, where'd you get the puppy?"

Her smile is fit to light the room.

"Xander."

She should be argueing about letting her keep it, about how much damage it'll do the house, how much it'll cost to feed.

But seeing how much her little sister seems to already love the fur ball she really can't bring herself to.

Off to the side Spike sniffs deeply at the air, trying to figure out just what is off about the pup. The Whelp gave it to Dawn so it must be all right, but still, there's something weird about it.

Dawn smiles and shares a look with the cub, blue eyes meet puppy brown as she scratches its ruff, the little wooden totem on a string thumping against its chest.


	3. CH 2: Size 49X Triple Wide

If you'd have told him a few years ago that he'd graduate top of his class with a free ride to any college in the country he'd have laughed and asked you if you'd taken your medication today.

Though it did figure that the military outfit that wanted to recruit him was evil.

"Stupid demon-magnet-ness crossing over into job ops."

The Initiative had tried to recruit him the nice way, then Dr. Walsh had threatened him.

He had raised an eyebrow and walked out after delivering his now patented death-glare-de-artic as Willow had called it.

So he had gone home, cracked out the laptop and systematically hacked her entire system.

And what the F*** was the US Government doing experimenting with demon bits!?

It had taken longer than it should have to hack the database. Then again these were paranoid government people, of course their networks would be as secure as they could make them.

The use of scientific and political double talk notwithstanding.

He'd managed to do quite a bit of clean-up, get the peaceful demons out and kill the ones that were a danger to humans.

ADAM was a slippery bastard though.

Finally he'd had to go and get the big guns.

"I know what I was made to do."

The cyborg stood at the edge of one of the town's many cemeteries, secure in his own power and place in the hierarchy of the Hellmouth.

"Good for you."

The radio on his arm crackled slightly, showing the transmission was hacked, not one he'd permitted. He'd back track the signal later and deal with the hacker. Perhaps he'd be useful in his army….

"Who are you to stop me?"

ADAM was startled with the ground vibrated with and a huge form became visible through the darkness. Faint light glinted off the edge of armor plating of the massive humanoid.

"Just someone with a really big foot."

ADAM didn't get a chance to run as the foot of the gundam came down with surprising force and speed.

Not even a super enhanced cyborg could withstand a foot the size of a chevy squashing him.

Xander grimaced. Good thing all the armor was Teflon coated, that was going to take a heck of a lot of work to wash off.


	4. CH 3: Fake and Make Believe

They had been very, _very_ careful to keep Xander's new form a secret from Dawn.

But right now, it was a moot point.

He didn't care what Buffy said now, not after everything else.

Dawn was hurting and he had a sure fire way to, if not stop it, ease it a little.

And there were enough secrets in the group. This one didn't need to be kept.

Originally he hadn't given much thought to how long he'd live. Not like a long life and living on the Hellmouth went together after all.

But he'd noticed that when he morphed human he didn't need to shave as much. That his hair was never as long as he expected it should be. He brushed it aside as 'DNA doesn't get affected or changed'. It was natural.

Then he noticed that when he had downtime from school and having to play human his hooves needed to be trimmed just a bit more often. That what little fur he shed was more when he didn't have to be around other who didn't know his… unique situation.

He finally sat down to do some math and hard thinking.

The final answer was worrying.

Andalites lived much longer than humans did. Centuries verses decades. What's more every time he morphed, he reset his age. In just one school year he'd managed to hold back aging by 7 months with how much he morphed.

In a lifetime of morphing for fights, spying, battling, whatever, how many years would that add to an already long life?

And it was just his kind of luck that he'd live right through to the end of it, watching all his friends and family go first.

Until he was the very last.

Dawn was scared, and feeling very alone. And really, there was no reason for her to be.

"Hey Dawn-patrol!

"Xander!"

He laughed as he got tackled by an over enthusiastic teen, already used to the weight thrown at him every time he walked in the door. She still moped and got depressed, but during the daylight hours she seemed better.

"Come on. You and me have something to do. Just us."

"We do?"

"Yup."

"Do we need to tell Buffy?"

"I left a note. We'll be back before dark and we'll be super safe."

Grinning she bounced alongside him, following until they were at a little part of the beach that was off from the main drag, safe but hidden from prying eyes.

"Ok, soooo what's up?"

"You know we've been keeping secrets from you, Dawn. You're too smart not to realize that. The others don't want you to know this, but I figure it's my secret, and it's up to me whether or not I share it."

Dawn stopped short, startled by the sudden seriousness in Xander's tone. She could count the number of times he'd used that tone on her fingers alone. It had to be big.

"I don't care if the memories are fake or not, you're my Dawnie, my Dawn-patrol. You are as real to me as Buffy and Willow and one of my girls, and you deserve to know the truth. Halloween, the year Ethan turned us into our costumes, I did change with everyone else. But I never changed back. You hadn't read the books yet, so the joke was lost on you, and alter you just seemed to forget."

He moved off to one side, taking off his baggy clothes to reveal a set of biking shorts and a tight t-shirt, putting his regular clothes in a neat pile.

"I became an alien fighter, one with a remarkable ability that came with a price I didn't even know about. After I figured it out, I managed to get an aging potion off one of the few decent magic workers in town. I could do much more good fully grown than as an adolescent. The potion added just enough years to mature me, and I'll be at that stage of life for a very, very long time."

Dawn could only watch in shock as Xander's skin turned blue, his mouth disappeared, and two stalks sprouted from the top of his head. She didn't run through the entire disturbing change. Silent she watched until the now alien form was completed.

Four eyes, a scorpion-like tail, blue fur, hooves. It was fantastical and disturbing and amazing.

-I became _aristh_ Aximili-Esgarouth-Isthill on Halloween. When Halloween passed I was still an andalite with my own body as a morph. I could be human again, but I won't, because that would mean leaving the fight. If I live my entire natural life as an andalite I could live for over a millennia. I have searched in every manner possible for other andalites in this reality and there are none. I will be the only andalite here until the day I die.-

He had been taller than her by a few inches, now her head barely came up to his shoulder. The wicked blade was down, tip barely brushing the ground, stalk eyes watching for danger even as he kept his now brilliant blue ones locked with hers. For a long moment she could only stand there and stare.

-Dawnie?-

That voice, out loud on in her head, was pure Xander. She rushed him, hugging him tight around the middle and crying into his soft blue fur.

"The fake alien and the make-believe girl. We're a pair, aren't we?"

The smile, even lacking a mouth, was the same Xander-smile he'd always had.

And it made everything just a little bit better.


	5. CH 4: The Rule of Tiny Bits

'How stupid are these people?'

He watched as the 'commandos' downed another demon and hustled it back somewhere.

Government + dangerous creatures = death on a large scale.

This was horror movie fact, didn't anyone pay attention anymore!?

'And the choices are a) help them and bring about destruction or b) bring about destruction on the idiots –now- and avoid a massive loss of life later. Or the ever popular choice c) take the happy trip to denial land and go home for a nap.'

With a sigh he started after the latest batch of idi… commandos. Like that was ever a choice.

~*~*~*~*~

Slipping past the cameras? Easy. Moving around roughly two hundred human soldiers? Cake walk. Going unnoticed by the resident demons? A bit tricky, but he enjoyed a challenge.

Getting past the ….. hidden door?

Oh this just couldn't be good.

A little subtle flickering of the fingers and voila, open door.

Dr. Watch? Wash? Cooed over the bits and pieces of machine, human and demon like a regular woman would a baby.

'Good grief, I know Buffy pulls the dumb-blonde but this lady wins hands down!'

"Soon you'll wake up and then everything will be fine."

"He's already awake."

Dr. Walsh turned, absolutely stunned that anyone besides herself was in the private laboratory.

"Who are you!? What are you doing here?"

"Stopping a massacre before it begins. He's awake already."

"That's impossi.."

"Mother?"

He watched the monster, because that's really the only thing it could be called, reach out like it wanted to hug the doctor. Even he wasn't expecting it when it ran the doctor through.

"Don't worry, Mother. I know what I was made for."

Before the doctor's body finished falling Xander was moving.

The old rule of 'if you don't know how to kill it, hack it into little tiny bits' was served well.

After that he just let his demon side out, killing the violent demons and releasing the peaceful ones. Bit by bit he destroyed everything in the base, setting off alarms as he went to give the humans a chance to get out.

The next day there were several inquires in the paper, some even as far away as LA, wondering what happened to send three college buildings up in black fire the night before.


	6. CH 5: Did he just?

"That does it!"

He was furious!

Taking down the First had been hard, but they'd done it with a minimal loss of life thanks to activating all the Potentials and him getting a new Limit Break.

He'd been in Africa, happily wandering the wilds searching for more Slayers.

If in the process a large number of demons and scum-sucking leeches (aka humans you'd assume were soulless) were cut into tiny little pieces, so much the better.

He'd been pulled from his wanderings by a tearful Dawnie during his regular phone call. She knew that Buffy's latest boyfriend was a power hungry ego maniac and her dear elder sister refused to see it. She had in fact insisted that her little sister was just jealous that she had a boyfriend and Dawn didn't. He hadn't agreed that he was evil at first, but the taped conversations that happened between him and Dawn just rooted it.

Buffy had ignored the tapes and insisted Dawn was faking them.

Time to play hardball.

"You, get in that room and put on some clothes! And you, get your ass out that door now, we are having a 'talk' about what is and is NOT appropriate behavior when dealing with one of my girls."

The man in question angrily yanked his pants back into place as Buffy scampered for the bedroom, slamming the door shut after.

"Who the hell do you think you are!? Do you know who I am!?"

"An idiot waiting on his initiation to the Darwin Award List if Winners. Move!"

He had no patience for the man and shoved him out the door onto the lawn, not caring that he was only in a pair of unbuttoned jeans.

"I will have your head for this! You have no idea who you are trifling with! I am the Immortal!"

"You're the one who has no idea what you're dealing with!"

The mako in his blood burned bright blue in his eyes as his wings manifested.

"That's all you've got!? A cheap parlor trick!"

CRACK!

Dawn watched in awe from her place on the porch, not having followed him inside once Xander had made his entrance.

"Xander, did you just _spank_ him with your sword?"

"Compared to what I wanted to do to him, he's getting off easy."

"Uh huh."

"He's lucky I didn't swing at him from his front."

Dawn gave a small, sympathetic wince.

"When do you think he'll come down?"

"In a minute or two. And then I can start laying into him."

"Oh?"

"Yup. Note the arch that strategically threw him away from the populated areas."

"That's bull."

"Well yeah, but it still works."

"I still can't believe you _spanked _the guy with your sword!"

"Great motto, 'speak softly and carry a big sword.' The guys never believe it's the quiet ones."

Dawn cracked up as Xander flew off to deal with her sister's latest ex.


	7. CH 6: Bots Are Better

"You blew up your high school!?"

"To kill a massive true demon, yup."

"You _blew up_ your _high school_!?"

Xander rolled his eyes and sighed as he waited for the Army man to calm the heck down.

Ironhide told him to call if he needed help.

He had called them when they found out about the demon.

They told him not to bother them for pranks.

He had tried again, emailing as many images and references as he could.

They told him not to call back.

He'd decided 'fuck you, I'll do it my way' and just started planning the explosives.

"I can't believe you want us to believe you blew up your high school to kill a demon snake!"

Ah, Sunnydale Denial Syndrome, now with national coverage!

Finally he'd had enough.

"Follow me."

"What!? Why should I?"

"If you're going to bring up bogus charges you're damn well going to see the evidence first."

The guy with him, Epps?, followed along easily enough, even if he could tell he was holding back the major from doing something… regrettable.

He pulled them along to the high school, navigating the thoroughly abandoned hallways and heading straight for the auditorium.

The two army men followed him, stepping over miscellaneous bits until…

"Holy shit is that a tooth!"

"Hey! Cool, you found a fang. Maybe I can make another weapon out of it."

Epps picked up the fang, his hand barely big enough to circle the base.

"What the hell kind of thing has this for a tooth!?"

"And that's a small one. Check this out!"

The tooth Xander picked up was easily as long as his leg and about as thick, obviously one from the front of the mouth.

Will Lennox could be excused for paling at the sight of the two teeth, especially when the one Xander picked up had been resting next to what was now identifiable as a chunk of skull. One that wouldn't have looked out of place on a dinosaur.

"Xander?"

"Hey Clem! You get that video I asked for?"

"Yup, here you go."

Both army men stood stock still as what looked like a badly deformed human-basset hound cross made its way over to the boy and handed him a video tape.

"You coming to poke this Friday?"

"Only if it's non-kitten. Willow gave me The Eyes."

"Ouch, I'll put the word in then. Later."

Grinning the teen tucked the tape into a pocket of his cargo pants and turned back to the soldiers.

He stopped when he noticed how pale they both were and their jaws hanging open.

"What?"

There was a set of thumps soldiers fainted.

"WHICHEVER BOT IS OUTSIDE SEND SOMEONE IN HERE TO GET THEM!"

A soft hum and a brief shimmer from the outer doors later and a familiar holoform trotted into the room.

"What the slag kid!?"

"Not my fault they fainted!"

"It's not nice to shock people kid. How the hell were they supposed to know this crap was real?"

"And alien robots from outer space are any better?"

Ironhide couldn't really argue that.


	8. CH 7: Stupid Tuesdays

Xander woke up confused, cramped, and with a headache the likes of which one would expect from getting slugged by a vamp. Thankfully the swim trunks he'd had on earlier for the beach were still in place, funky little 'security knot' included, meaning no one had tried to (or at least been able to) get them off him.

He vaguely remembered walking down to a quiet spot, hearing someone whispering nearby and then a horrible pain in his chest before blacking out. Uhoh.

"What the hellmouth?"

And we crack one eye open annnnnd…. Ok, not too bright, but definitely sunny enough whoever had him wasn't a vamp. They'd be toast from the late-afternoon light coming in the huge picture window. Along the far wall there were a bunch of large glass containers … what were they called… topiaries? Terrariums? Lots of plant stuff in them and blinking lights.

Slowly he opened the other eye, hoping things would clear up a bit. Looking around himself he noticed that he was in some sort of miniature room, glass on four sides with metal corners. There was a fair amount of 'green stuff' in with him, most of it tropical. If he was creative he could lay out along one side, if he didn't mind a few branches digging in.

His eyes snapped open as he realized he was in a human-sized terrarium.

Definitely of the bad.

A little shifting confirmed his wings were still ok, that was good. Willow's mojo kept those hidden from anyone who didn't believe in faeries and/or wanted to hurt him, that way no humans would nab them or anything. He wasn't ashamed to admit having his wings pulled hurt like hell. That meant 1) someone knew who Buffy was and was trying to draw her out by holding him (third damn time this month!), 2) someone wanted to blackmail Willow into doing something and so had nabbed him as blackmail (second time in three months), or 3) someone had figured out just what he was, and decided to nab him.

Add in that it was Tuesday and the odds of number 3 were dramatically increased.

He could admit to being shocked stupid, even considering the odds, when the door opened and in walked Larry. In his hands was a large glass jar with dirt. A tray of plants by the door gave some idea as to what he was up to.

It took Xander a while to come out of his shock, but when he did the result was classic.

"What the hell!?"

Larry stopped planting the newest terrarium and sauntered over, looking rather smug and awed at the same time.

He didn't even know that combination was possible.

"Good to see you're awake. Hope you aren't feeling too awful from the trip."

"Larry? What the hell are you up to?"

"Family always told me faeries were real. I blew them off, thought it was just funny stuff for kids. Then after Halloween, it all made sense and I started seeing them everywhere. You were a shock though. Were you always a faerie or was that another after-Halloween thing?"

"Helloween."

"Makes sense. That's when you're hair changed."

"What are you gonna do?"

Larry shrugged, tossing his jacket into a corner and walked back over to the terrarium he'd been setting up.

"Nothing bad. Most of these I just keep for a while, sketch a few drawings of, let go somewhere other than here. Usually when I go out of town."

"Most of them?"

"Some I keep, like the bad ones so they can't hurt anyone."

Xander's wings started to twitch subconsciously, sending bits of gold light bouncing around the walls.

"What about me?"

Larry stopped what he was doing again and looked at him. The expression that started to spread across his face reminded him strongly of the Love Spell Disaster. He swallowed and took a step back from the glass, wings clamping down against his back.

Crap.

The metaphorical caught the literal and decided to keep it thanks to the demon magnet factor.

"Stupid Tuesdays."

He wondered how long it was going to take the girls to find him this time.


	9. CH 8: One Up

"Ok, most famous girlfriend."

"Mina Harker."

"As in window of Doctor?"

"Yup. You?"

"Huh, that's pretty impressive. Let's see, I think Anya's still the most famous."

"Anya?"

"Anyanka, Patron Saint of Scorned Women."

Eyes went wide in shock.

"And you're still … functional?"

"She made sure of it."

"Damn. That round's yours. Next up… hmm biggest explosion?"

"Oh no, you go first."

"All right. Factory where Moriarty was manufacturing his version of WWIII. Top that one."

"Huh, do explosions from reactions count?"

"Nope."

"Damn, there went the Sunnyhell collapse. I'd have to say high school then."

"An explosion in high school? What did you play with the wrong chemicals?"

"Nope, blew up an ascended demon."

"Shit!"

"Yeah, really big mess. I still think there are bits of Mayor Mac Demon in that crater too. Worst house-mate?"

"Easy, Skinner, before we found out that 1) he's a nudist and 2) he's 'opportunist bisexual'."

"How's that make him the worst?"

"I didn't know why my door kept popping open for a month."

"Oops, that's gotta be awkward."

"Add in the sly looks Edward gave me when he popped up, very."

"Ouch. Sorry. Ok, mine I can't really put down to any one particular person, just a general situation that sucked."

"Which is?"

"I helped set up the New Watchers' Council, which you know. This included housing and general repairs before trotting off to Africa. Oh, by the way Alan says 'hi'."

The other man made a shooing motion with his hand.

"Right. Well keep in mind there was only myself, Giles and Andrew there with about 50 or so teenage girls."

"Still not seeing the problem."

"Two main ones. One, three males, fifty females. One is too odl for any real flirting, more a father figure, which was of the good. And the other they wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole."

:They thought the scarring was that bad."

"Oh no, they thought **I** was 'macho' and 'hunky'. It was Andrew they wouldn't touch. Not that I blame them."

"Ok, and the second problem?"

"Keep in mind, all Slayers and four words. Synchronized. Red. Tide. Week."

The other man could only look at him in horror.

"That's what we said. How about…"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"How much longer do you think they'll do this?"

"One only knows. Though I'd wager until the bar closes or until Tom admits defeat. Again."

"Ya know, for all the world saving this guy has done, you'd think he'd know a lost fight."

"He won by never admitting any such thing."

"Yeah, but that's bad guys. This is Xander."

"You were possessed by a what!?"

Three heads turned towards the corner where two friends sat, trading one-ups and beer.

"I do believe you may have a point."

Two women shared a look before returning to their own drinks while the third at their table polished his glasses in consternation.


	10. CH 9: Scary Big Head

"And one, two, three, again, two, three,…"

"What's going on?"

"Oh hey Buffy."

"Hiya Buff."

"What are you doing?"

"Teaching the Dawnster to waltz. Apparently some of those Halloween memories are infiltration missions and dancing was a must-know."

"It's actually pretty fun. Plus, hunky teacher."

Xander treated them both to a horrified expression.

"So no fighting?"

"Nope, just dancing. Might work on some ballet with her later. Good for balance."

He gave Buffy a wink and play-winced when Dawn smacked him over the head.

"Ok, have fun you crazy kids."

Laughing the Slayer walked out to go back to planning. They were going to need to pull out all the stops to keep Glory away from Dawn.

* * *

"Get down here NOW!"

"To quote Spike, 'oh bloody HELL no!'"

The scene the Scoobies arrived to was not what they expected. Dawn was on the ceiling of the hotel's ballroom, feet stuck in a familiar stance while the hell goddess fumed beneath her.

Apparently flight/gravity nullification was not a talent of hers.

"Oh Xander."

Slayer-slashed-PO'ed-sister glare number 12.

"Make with the 'splainy. I thought you said you weren't teaching her how to fight."

"I wasn't. I was teaching her to dance and control her chakra so she didn't 'leak' all over the place. Dancing like waltzing, ballet and stretching like tai chi are very good for training muscles to balance and move smoothly. They also help channel one's chakra through the body efficiently, as is taught in Chakra Molding Basics: Year One."

"That's fighting."

"No, that's health and wellness and it's keeping her out of Glory's mitts. Depending on how long she's been up there…"

"FIVE MINUTES!"

"GOOD WORK, DAWNIE! Anyway, with her only being up there for five minutes, and her limit being a bit over an hour, we're good. She won't fall off, the time limit is up in about 20 minutes, and we all get some fun trouncing minion butt in the meanwhile."

Both the Slayer and the Ninja tensed and then stared as Doc tried to whack Dawn off the ceiling with that freaky tongue, only to get a kunai piercing for his trouble.

Buffy gave Xander a look.

"I did NOT give her that, though I did teach her how to throw them."

Slayer-slash-PO'ed-sister glare number 6 with a dash of 5. Might have to work on more sub-sets. Again.

"Would you rather she try to teach herself?"

Memories of Dawn's attempts to teach herself sword fighting, boxing and a number of other things flashed through Buffy's mind.

"Yeah that's what I thought."

"I'm going to take your brain for a movie snack when I catch you and then I'm going to twist your little flesh-bag body into a knot!"

Xander's eyes hardened and he stepped forward.

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE THREATENING OUR DAWNIE LIKE THAT! AND JUIST WHAT ARE YOU WEARING YOUNG LADY!? ARE YOU TRYING TO GET THE AWARD FOR SKANK OF THE MONTH!?!"

Through the yelling his head had taken a rather inflated appearance and the yelling, while mean, also gave a deep sense of disappointment.

Glory reared back in shock when Xander unleashed his 'Scary Big Head No Jutsu'.

"Apparently, not just for children."

The Scoobies just stared at Spike as the hell goddess cowered and tried not to look too guilty under Xander's continued gaze.

Really, what was there to say to that?

"Can I come down yet?"

"Ten more minutes!"

"Yes, Sensei!"

Dawn, clung to the ceiling and didn't move. She didn't want that Jutsu used on her.


	11. CH 10: Starting Again

"Hey Dawnie, you ready?"

"Yeah Xand, let's blow this pop stand."

It had been many, many years since that Halloween. Sunnydale was a distant memory, the crater grown over with a lush growth of trees. The New Council was running smoothly, granted the start up was rougher than either would have liked. There were now protocols in place of finding, training and placing the new Slayers that popped up worldwide. Buffy's greatest wish for her Sisters came true, no Slayer ever fought alone.

Their family had all been heroes in the end. Buffy lived to be the oldest Slayer on record, dyeing of old age at the grannified age of 73. She'd stayed in the fight right up to the end too, followed by her own daughters and granddaughters. Three of whom carried the name Joyce, one Tara and one Cordy. Dawn had done a scrying after she'd gone, and found her smiling in heaven with their mother. The Prime Slayer finally got her gift.

Willow had gone on to be one of the most powerful and revered witches in the world. Her hair bleached white by her power, the dark taint of the 'Mouth washed out by her goddess. When her mortal body died she became one of the earth goddesses. He was pretty sure that lovely forest over their old home was her handwork. He let he know every time he visited the tree they'd planted at the first official New Watchers Headquarters in Devon. Sometimes he could feel her answering him back.

Giles, the great Watcher who taught them all how to be heroes, died in his sleep at 86. He left behind a great legacy of not just being the Watcher to emulate, but also the kind of person one ought to be. He had never married, or even had a serious relationship after Sunnydale, but he had adopted. And his children were the happiest they could be. He was as known for his protective fathering as he was for his great knowledge. The Rupert Giles Library of Magic was the greatest gift they could give to his memory.

The loss of the LA Fang Gang saddened Dawn and Xander. They were the only ones who they might have stuck around for now. The two vampires with souls were resting though, and they were more than due their peace. Dawn and Conner had become friends, both people-who-weren't-supposed-to-be. They had offered to take him with them, but he declined, saying he wanted to stick around for a while longer. Make sure there weren't any extra bumps in the road after they left.

They'd come back for him someday. When he was ready.

For now though, it was time for them to leave. It had been centuries since the Scoobies faded away, becoming more legend than fact in some cases. They'd planned it that way, when they wouldn't be Dawn the Key and Xander the One Who Sees, but just Dawn and Xander, two more people in a world of millions.

He'd changed alt modes one last time, becoming a sleek Lotus Elise in a dark orange color and black racing stripes. The gunmetal had been fitting at first, but Dawn pointed out that the style wasn't really him and neither was the color. She'd picked it out, he'd agreed and it just worked. For the timeframe they were aiming for he'd look cutting edge, not sci-fi escapee.

Dawn did her thing with a little mojo so the time frames were right, telling him about Sam and how he was acting now and the set she had for them so that regardless of their welcome, they'd have a place to stay. Now there was only one thing left to do.

It was time for them to find the others.

"Ok, suitcases?"

"Check."

"Mojo box?"

"Check."

"Memory box?"

"Check and check double for Mr. Gordo."

"Right. Green thing?"

"Check."

Whap!

"Ow! Wills!"

The small willow sapling on Dawn's lap rustled in a way that seemed mocking.

"You really should know better by now Xander."

"Right. We miss anything?"

"Driver."

"Huh? But I'm… oh right."

Xander's holoform coalesced in the driver's seat, looking a bit abashed.

"Ready to rock, Dawn-patrol?"

"Let's do it!"

Grinning as the green portal opened in front of them Xander gunned, headed towards another world.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sam was excited. He'd been talking to a girl online for a while, not as a potential date, but because she was someone who believed in the odd, but also believed that sometimes people were better off not knowing everything. He'd hinted at some things, she'd agreed on some points and corrected others, proving she knew what had gone on in Mission City. Bumblebee had checked the signal, coming back as belonging to a D. Summers in Cleveland. She was real and she was human and, apparently, she was safe.

It had taken a while but she'd finally agreed to meet up to chat since she was going to be visiting the area. She'd suggested Look Out Point, preferably when only they would be around.

He asked why.

She wanted to meet the others and offer some help.

Her connections and her personal wealth would make things much easier for the 'Bots and their human supporters.

Sam was still reluctant until she mentioned that perhaps Bumblebee had an odd recharge sometime in October? She'd be happy to explain and ease any worries he might have over it.

After talking with Optimus and the others it had been agreed.

Now they just had to show up.

It was relatively dark, not late enough for most teens to be sneaking out, too late for the after-school jaunts, when they heard the hum of a motor approaching the look out.

He was a bit startled when the car doors opened and a man and woman stepped out.

"Dawn?"

"Hi! You're Sam, right? This is Xander. Best friend forever and knows even more than I do. He's my ride."

"And gutter minded much?"

"You wish, Sparky."

They bantered for a bit, moving around to plant a sapling Dawn had been holding.

"So I bet you're all wondering just why I wanted to meet all of you, right? And you big guys can come out and transform. By now you've realized that no one's followed us, we aren't wearing any trackers, and we aren't communicating with anyone over comms."

Slowly the four large vehicles transformed into their bipedal forms, eyeing the human with uncertainty.

Dawn and Xander just smiled at them.

"Hello Optimus Prime, it's a pleasure to meet you. You too Ironhide, Ratchet, Bumblebee.'

Four sets of optics turned to Sam.

"Hey don't look at me! I never once mentioned your names!"

"Actually, he never told us anything about the Autobots. We learned a different way. Let me tell you a story."

The male stepped forward even as the female moved back to sit near the freshly planted tree.

"A few years ago, or a lot depending on the time paradox, I was recruited to show some kids around Trick-Or-Treating. My first choice of costume, that of a soldier, was nixed when a kid grabbed the last toy gun. Going with the next best bet, I grabbed some scraps of plastic yellow armor that were in the bargain bin and modified them to look like the armor of a character from a new-ish movie, not really thinking much of it. That night a Chaos Mage cast a spell that turned everyone who bought one of his costumes into that character. Little monsters became real, fake wounds bled, and superheroes were suddenly real.

The day after, mostly everyone changed back to what they actually were. Except for one. There was no way to reverse the change. Going from a 180lb lanky teen to a 4 to 5 ton alien robot required too much power. He used his new shape to help his friends fight those that wanted to destroy the world. Somewhere along the way he picked up a little sister that was more than meets the eye. A power that could have rivaled the AllSpark packed down into a tiny human girl."

Xander looked up at the assembled bots with glowing blue eyes.

"That teen was me."

"Impossible, magic doesn't exist."

"That's your cue Willow!"

Every set of eyes and optics turned to the female as she hastily backed away from the tree. They watched as the tiny sapling shot up, becoming a massive, fully grown willow tree in a matter of seconds.

"We left our world when we weren't need any more. We came here to help however we can."

The form of Xander shimmered and disappeared and the Lotus Elise pulled forward, engine purring softly before it broke apart with a musical hum, folding and twisting until a bot not too unlike Bumblebee stood there.

"My name was Xander Harris, but you can call me Crossfire if you prefer."

He stood there, waiting for their reply, Dawn leaning on his foot.

He was a bit surprised when Optimus stepped forward.

"Greetings Crossfire, welcome to Earth as it were."

Xander grinned. Something told him this was going to be good.


	12. CH 11: Well Done

"So what's the plan?"

"Well, I kinda want to kill the dragon."

"You do and your ass is grass."

The 'Fang Gang' turned, startled at who was able to sneak up on two master vampires and a primordial god king. They were rather shocked when a familiar slight figure walked out of the alley, dressed in a snug leather get up complete with what looked like a utility belt around her hips and a sword on her back. By the looks of things she was not happy.

"Niblet!?"

"Don't get me started on you, Spike. Buffy's going to clobber you when she gets here."

"What are you doing here? Giles said you weren't going to help!"

"One, Giles has reason to be leery when Mr. Looses-His-Soul-Every-Thursday joins the most evil corporation on this plane. Two, you asked Giles,of course he's going to say no! Did you not think to call Buffy? And three, we got a vision and were sent here. You're screwed when we're done."

"Just you? Buffy sent you alone!?"

"Pfft of course not. Willow averted a pre-season and tapped out. I can teleport Xander and myself way easier than she can teleport a pencil right now."

"So two more kids, and we're already down two ourselves. How does this improve things?" Gunn looked at the slight girl wondering just what she smoked to get through that portal.

Said girl growled something that sounded vaguely like Sumerian curse words and yanked him down to her level by his ear. When he opened his mouth to yell she stuffed something blue and slimy down his throat.

"What the hell girl!?"

"She has fixed you."

Gunn was amazed to notice his wounds were all but gone and he was feeling back at full strength. The two master vamps were surprised they hadn't thought of using Mohra demon blood themselves. The group was shocked again when Wesley and Connor stepped out of the shadows, flanking the teen. Angel was looking very, very nervous.

"You and me, missy, are going to have a talk later about taking what isn't yours, so don't think you're off the hook."

"And what fleshbag sheep are you to say such things to me? I was God King of the Primordium."

Dawn didn't say anything, merely let a ball of intense green energy float in her palm.

Spike swore he'd never seen Illyria look nervous before.

"Fight now, piddle later. XANDER!"

The Fang Gang jerked in surprise as another roar split the sky. This one seemed even more intimidating than the first given by the black dragon.

Angel's mouth actually dropped open in shock as a heavily armored white dragon swept down and managed to latch its jaws on the back of the black one's neck, shaking it like a bone until the other dragon's neck snapped.

"I told you he was pissed. And it looks like our fun is here."

Demons suddenly seemed to surround them. Gunn and Conner were amazed as she not only seemed to keep pace with the vampires and former god, but at times protected their backs. The dragon was ripping apart anything that was too far away for them to deal with, or too large.

They were being backed towards the alley again as the humans and vamps wore down. Finally it seemed Dawn had enough of flipping and slicing enemies.

"Ok, time to wrap this up. _**Brisngr**_!"

The group watched as the mass of demons in front of them suddenly wasn't, ash blowing in the wind.

Another roar overhead and the white dragon finished the rest, roasting them to cinders in white fire.

As Xander neared the alley he noticed a rather familiar look on Connor's face as he watched Dawn tear his father a new one.

_-I'm going to have to talk to Connor for a bit.-_

_-What? I thought he fought well.-_

_-He did. That's not what the talk is about.-_

_-Do I want to know?-_

_-I'll let you know later if need be.-_

_-Ok.-_

What was it with the Aurelius vamps and Summers girls?


	13. CH 12: And You Shake It All About

"Who are you? How did you get in here!?"

Dr. Walsh stood protectively in front of what looked like a bad combination of the Terminator and Frankenstein's monster.

Frankenstein's monster was probably cuddlier. The Terminator too for that matter.

"You can call me Armory. And as for how I got in… do you have any idea how sucky your security system is here?"

"It's state of the art! The best the military has to offer!"

"And again, it's sucky. Took me maybe five minutes. And honestly, I skipped the coffee this morning."

Dr. Walsh eyed the young man standing against the door to her private lab. He was dressed in gunmetal grey and clothes with white piping. She had a feeling the piping was white for a reason. He had a helmet over his head that seemed to glow white, completely obscuring his face. There were rollerblades on his feet and some sort of metallic pack on his back. The outfit almost could have been casual if it weren't for the fact she could tell there was armor under the fabric.

"This really isn't going to work. Honestly, the false reports, the drugging of your staff and subordinates, and let's not even mention the amount of capital you've been embezzling."

The doctor's mouth dropped open. She had hidden those transactions under layer and layers of encryptions. How the hell had this vagrant found them!?

"And by the way, you little toy is broken. And he's going to go boom."

"YOU PUT YOUR RIGHT LEG IN, YOU PUT YOUR RIGHT LEG OUT, YOU PUT YOUR RIGHT LEG AND YOU SHAKE IT ALL ABOUT!"

Margaret Walsh watched as her creation sprang off the table with enough force to send it crashing into the wall and started dancing along with the lyrics. She was so concerned with stopping ADAM and getting rid of the virus that she never noticed the teen leave.

* * *

Xander sped through the empty halls of the Initiative. A few emails and couple of alarms and the place was deserted. The only creatures left were the really bad demons that would hunt and kill humans, and he'd even given them a mercy of putting them all to sleep before the explosives went off.

They'd been tortured enough.

He'd timed everything perfectly, as soon as he got to his spot the explosives would go off and there'd be a much smaller threat. The Hellmouth was never threat-free after all.

A few more feet and he'd be there.

* * *

"YOU PUT YOUR PLUTONIUM REACTOR IN, YOU PUT YOUR PLUTONIUM REACTOR OUT, YOU PUT YOUR PLUTONIUM REACTOR OUT, YOU PUT YOUR PLUTONIUM REACTOR IN AND YOU SHAKE IT ALL ABOUT!"

She tried everything, rerouting codes, back up files, emergency stops.

There was nothing left to do.

The deranged doctor could only watch as her creation pulled out his own power source and started shaking the unstable contents.

* * *

Xander felt a little bad about the doctor, but not much. She had created that cyborg, disregarded the lives of her coworkers and staff, and almost brought down a threat too big to contain. Even her lab was layered under a thick plating of lead to keep any radioactivity from leaking out, not to protect humans, but her own sorry hide from getting caught.

He'd honestly met soulless demons with more morals.

As far as he was concerned, she was too big a threat to let go, and she'd had her chance to run after his warning.

**BOOM!!!**

"And that's what it's all about."


	14. CH13: Listen to Teacher

"Now, remember everyone, it's not necessarily the biggest bang that will get your results, but the easiest spell or tool used in an unconventional manner. Can anyone think of any examples? Brook?"

"A pencil to stake a fledgling?"

"Good! Exactly what I'm talking about. 'A pencil is harmless, it can't hurt me, why should I be worried about a girl holding a pencil?' Oops, anyone have the Dust Buster?"

The classroom filled with laughter for a few moments following the rather humorous mini-skit from the teacher.

"Any other ideas? Come on, this isn't that hard."

"Pepper!"

"Pepper? Explain please."

"Certain demons, like the Cyrtar'kth, are either allergic to human saliva or can't sneeze and maintain their… um, form. You sneeze at them, or get them to sneeze and suddenly, no more demon!"

"Inventive and bonus points for an added humiliation factor!"

"High heels!"

"Amanda we're talking about hurting demons, not our feet."

The girl in question giggled and pulled off one of her shoes, showing off a rather pointy high heel.

"The heel of this is wood with a silver pipe, and the pipe has holy water in it. Good for vamps, rogue werewolves, and anything that can be killed by either wood or silver or, in a pinch, holy water."

"Where did you buy those?"

"Custom made. I'll happily give you the number for the guy after class."

"Everyone, please applaud Amanda, she's earned your class a Fun Day on Friday, as well as a potential pair of custom new shoes once we work out logistics with the budget committee."

The class erupted in cheers. Prof. Xander's 'Fun Days' were days spent figuring out how to use ordinary items to kill demons in practical applications. In other words, mayhem with random stuff getting used on magical dummies. Every Slayer loved it.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Ugh, stupid male."

"What? I thought you liked him, Kennedy?"

"Hell no! It's just better to stay in his good graces so it's easier to stick with Willow."

"What!?"

"Honestly, what would someone like me see in her? The world isn't run by the most powerful people in it, but the people who control those with power. She 'loves' me, and will do what I suggest. Bit by bit I gain more ground, can do more and control more. It's all how you play it."

Kennedy was smirking at the other Slayer, a girl named Miranda. She hadn't been overly warm to the witch, unlike a lot of folks, and Kennedy had taken that to mean that she didn't like the witch at all.

Miranda on the other hand, simply didn't know her well enough to care. What Kennedy was saying had her wondering if she should keep her mouth shut or get one of the Council members.

Neither one realized the Xander was right by the door and had heard everything.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The entire third period class on 'Sneaky Tactics and Inventive Wins' jerked in surprise when their normally happy and calm teacher suddenly shouted something in Latin and blasted someone outside the classroom with a spell.

They watched, stunned as he seemed to pull in on himself, breathing very carefully in an effort to calm himself.

"Another lesson, class, is to always be underestimated. If you look to be too nice, too kind, too unassuming, they enemy will always underestimate you and you can use that to your full advantage."

He stepped out for a moment, coming back in with a divided cage holding two ferrets.

"One of these was a classmate of yours, talking about hurting Willow, not physically, but emotionally. The other is going to be very lucky if Oz doesn't visit this month. Can anyone tell me what this little example also shows?"

"Don't go for family, just get the target. If you go for family, you're fucked."

"I'll let that language slide this time because you're right. Anyone worth anything in this organization knows that you do NOT pick on the Scoobies and what's more you never, EVER talk about hurting one of my girls."

The black ferret in the cage squeaked and backed away as much as it could from the amber eyes trained on it.

"Especially my Willow."


	15. CH 14: Kitten Gets Nipped

AN: I'll probably get some flames for this, but I honestly had far too much fun writing this to care. Happy V-Day!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A large humanoid form prowled through the supposedly abandoned warehouse. Black ears twitched and turned towards the very, very faint sound of a pants leg brushing against the doorframe.

WOOSH!

"Ok, that's the 13th vamp dusted, one more to go and then this nest is done. This seems too easy."

"Hello, Kitten."

"Aw shit, challenged Murphy again."

Before he could even think about using one of the talismans around his neck to summon help she blew something in his face that smelled strongly of mint and sent his head spinning just before he blacked out.

The mad seer giggled as she hefted the large supine figure over her shoulder.

"The Rising Sun will so love her present."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

He woke up he-didn't-know-how-long later, head blurry and very confused. The over-sized sweatpants that he had been wearing were gone, he could tell that much, but something was wound around him that kept him from moving too much. He wasn't on the floor, thankfully, but something that was soft and warm. This really wasn't making any sense.

Shifting his head a bit he was able to see pale strands of something looped over and around him with no seeming pattern, like he'd rolled himself into a tangle while out, but he knew that wasn't the case. Moving his head alone had taken too much energy. A growl that sounded more like a groan worked out of his throat as he let his head fall back down, twitching his ears a bit to fling a tickling bit of the whatever-it-was off.

Xander hadn't noticed anyone else walk in, but that wasn't too much of surprise given how out of it he was. Words were too hard to understand, but the tone was calm and soothing. Even as a small hand started to ruffle between his ears more of that mint stuff was blown in his face and he was out again.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dawn rushed through the corridors of the old warehouse.

It had taken her years of wearing Xander down to the idea that she wasn't a little girl anymore and she really did like him 'that way'. It took getting drunk at the annual party for him to finally accept that she really wanted him out of all the available guys out there.

And that was one hell of a happy new year!

It wasn't even two months later and Xander had been nabbed. Xander! Wasn't that her job? And it was Tuesday even! They'd had plans, but put them off for the potential mini-apocalypse brewing with a nest of vamps.

Whoever nabbed him was dust!

Finally she spotted the marked door and pushed it open.

Only to freeze in shock.

What she was staring at was NOT what she'd expected to find.

Looking around for an explanation she spotted an envelope with her name on it, written in fancy cursive, on a table filled with things that Anya would have loved to explain the uses of.

Shaking herself she moved and lifted the flap, shaking out the letter.

_For the Rising Sun,_

_The Kitten needs some encouragement. These should help grandly. Happy Valentine 's Day and enjoy._

_Sincerely,_

_Dru_

Dawn wasn't sure if she wanted to think too hard on that.

Instead her attention turned back to the table. There were plenty of familiar things, but two in particular caught her eye. Lifting the tub of crushed leaves she almost laughed as she read the label.

**Enchanted Nip**

**Works even on Hellcats!**

Still stifling a snicker she picked up the spool of what looked like thick yarn.

**Be-Spelled Thread**

**Guaranteed to create a tangle you'll love**

Her mind automatically processed the directions even as her brain worked out what Drucilla had done.

Xander still had a few issues, sure she'd reject him if he was too 'fur-apparent' or he'd lose control and hurt her.

He really should know better. Out of all the Scoobies, only she'd squealed in delight seeing his halfling and animal forms, rushing over to hug the stuffing out of him (figuratively speaking) and spent hours just brushing him out after patrols back in Sunny-D.

So here he was, considerably mellowed by the cat nip and tangled rather cutely in the magicked yarn, and her, with a table full of toys, and three days vacation time.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Xander started coming out of the black-out fog again, getting a bit miffed at being put to sleep so often when a familiar scent managed to get past the lingering mint smell.

Dawn!

Huffing a bit and shaking his head to clear it he opened kitty green eyes to look at her.

The smirk she had on her face, as well as the toys in her hands, had him wondering if maybe being kidnapped wouldn't have been the safer option.

Abruptly his head snapped back in surprise, a low growl building in his chest. She had moved while he was still wondering if being kidnapped was a viable option. He moved to grab her, pull her close, and then the threads tangled all around him moved and he no longer could. Her hands were wandering and suddenly the growl was a yowl bouncing off the walls.

Then again, the hell with safe, where the hellmouth did Dawn learn to do _that_!?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dru giggled, curling up with her night's entertainment, enjoying her Valentine's on two fronts.

After all, if one was a vampiric Seer, getting R-rated visions was just a bonus.


	16. CH 15: Accidental Miracle

AN: Apparently the romance isn't gone yet. Enjoy the muse-spew!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

For a good while things had swung back up.

He'd managed to find a charm to hide the acid-trip-effect and worked an excuse about his cold touch. When patrolling he found he could curb any blood lust by glutting himself beforehand, usually with human mixed with some otter blood if he could get it. He wasn't an exact carbon copy of the character he'd dressed as, so there were a few foods he could eat, still no Twinkies though.

Kendra had shown up and been introduced to the gang.

She didn't think he was 'so cool' or that he should be grateful for a glancing blow from Murphy's. She had seen him as the first decent guy she'd ever met, who didn't think that her being so strong was weird or wrong. To him she was Kendra, new friend and someone who desperately needed a touch of normal and someone to confide in.

She cried when he gave her Snuffles, a very cuddly stuffed black dog, and her first plush toy ever.

Xander really wanted to kill the idiots at the Council for their idiocy.

He thought they were going to have to do some drastic convincing when she found him one night, walking home from the Red Cross building with a paper bag full of unusable blood bags.

Surprisingly she'd let him explain, going into as many details as he could, even pulling out the books to show her. He had let her lock him in the book cage while she read the books, not even mentioning that he could crack the steel like she could crack a baseball bat.

Later she had opened the door and simply sat in one of the overstuffed chairs that Giles seemed partial to stuffing in the back corners of the library. She liked the books and explained why.

First of all, Bella was a twit, and Edward was a freaky stalker who needed his head checked.

Xander hadn't been able to stop the surprised splutter-chuckle from that proclamation.

It wasn't the 'supernatural' creatures in it that had her enjoying the books, but rather the sense of family. The way the Cullens were so tightly knit together.

She envied them that.

From day one she had known that there was something different about him, her Slayer sense in regards to evil was much more developed and precise than Buffy's. She had never seen him as evil, just different and if the others didn't care she wasn't going to comment on it.

He was a pack leader, a protector, and a very much needed friend and voice of (gasp shock) normalcy in a life that was otherwise ruled by fighting and struggling and death.

He was Xander, regardless of sparkle.

Xander gave her a smile and pointed out a fact she'd probably enjoyed.

Kendra whooped with laughter and agreed.

Having an unbreakable huggy-toy was a great bonus.

He should have known Murphy was going to butt in at some point. And boy did he.

Things had gone so fucking _wrong_.

Maybe if he'd been paying more attention he could have gotten there before Drucilla attacked. He'd managed to save Ms. Calendar, and he'd always be grateful for that.

Still, getting to the school just in time to see Dru slitting Kendra's throat was enough to send him into a rage.

He'd flown at the fledglings and their mad Sire, turning the lot of them to dust before the blood lust got the better of him. It had taken more than he wanted to admit to pull back from Kendra's neck.

By then the damage was done, and his venom was working through her, making her like him.

He had called the paramedics to treat the others, get them help and tucked little warding pendants in their pockets before running with Ken.

Hours later he was situated in the refurbished warehouse he'd bought with his earning from the stock market. Boredom had made him take to tinkering during the long hours awake. He was glad at the time, since it gave him the perfect base to work from.

Now it housed a grieving vampire and thrashing-with-pain Slayer.

He worked it into his mind that if she didn't want this kind of life he'd end it for her. No matter how much it broke him inside.

* * *

She came back to awareness slowly, thirsty and burning for something she couldn't name.

Suddenly there was a cup at her lips and she swallowed down the offered liquid in hasty gulps, whining when it was taken away and then relaxing when it was returned, full again.

A few more repeats and her awareness spread out to the arms that were holding her. They were warm, comfortable, safe, and smelled familiar.

"Ken?"

"Xander? What has happened?"

"I am so, _so_ sorry, Ken."

She looked at him, noticing how his cheeks were wet and his eyes were red, the kind that didn't' come from blood lust.

"You were crying. I thought that de vampires from the books couldn't cry?"

"They can't, but I never did fit the mold. Kendra, do you know what happened to you? Do you remember?"

"Der was a female vampire, she caught my eyes and then a pain on my neck, a feeling very cold. Den pain, and thirst."

"The vampire was Drucilla. She… she slit your throat. And I…."

He shook, unable to complete the sentence. Her gaze fell to the mug at her side, noticing the red stains inside and putting the pieces together.

"You… you lost control and bit me, but did not kill me. Now I am like you. A … what is de term you use? Sparkle-pire?"

Xander gave a half-sob, half-laugh at that.

"Yeah, you're like me. Are you… will you be able to live like this?"

It was a question that she'd thought of a lot since meeting Xander. He had admitted that his control was shaky sometimes, and that an accident could happen. He worked his hardest to try and keep that from happening, but sometimes Murphy just took a pot shot.

"Yes. I can live like dis. De Council can no longer control me. And I can still fight. I still have my soul, and I have a wonderful friend. I tink dat all tings considered, this is actually a good ting."

She watched Xander's expression, awed and humbled by what she'd said. His locks on his empathy were paper thin, showing his strain and regret, nearly making them palpable in the air as he tried to keep from projecting too much.

"You really mean that, don't you?"

"Yes. So, when can we start to work on my control?"

The little fluttering of a crush that had started when she met the goofy, sweet-hearted young man, bloomed full when he smiled at her.

At least now she had a project.

* * *

"You screwed up plenty of plans, kid."

"Tell someone who cares, Whistler."

"The bosses aren't happy. They want to make you pay."

"They let me become this in the first place. They only have themselves to blame."

"You're not making this easy, kid."

"Frankly, I really don't care. I have one of the old gods backing me for certain, perhaps two or more. If they really wanted to do something about it, they'd have done it by now."

"Xander? Are you ready or do you still need a minute?"

"I'm ready, Ken. See ya Whistler."

He turned his back on the balance demon, meeting with Kendra where she stood, letting their hands join naturally as they started walking back towards town.

"Hey kid!"

The duo stopped and turned to face the demon.

"What?"

"For what it's worth, I think you're doing great."

With a smile and a tip of the hat the demon vanished.

The two vampires exchanged smiles.

Xander understood how they were able to go on now. It had taken time, and a lot of trial and error, but Kendra had bloomed into a beautiful young woman. She was happy, bright, and reveling in her calling, still fighting the baddies. Her abilities had grown as well. The Slayer visions that had been vague and frightening became true Visions, letting her see what she focused on.

And she had apparently focused on him with typical slayer tenacity.

Jasper had Alice.

And Xander had Kendra.

She smiled at him, and he felt himself falling all over again.

Kendra was his accidental miracle.

And he was never letting her go.


	17. CH 16: Shining Light

This was confusing.

And it wasn't.

This was wrong.

And it felt quite right.

He didn't know her from Eve.

And he knew her better than anyone else ever would.

A rather adorable look of confusion grew on his feline features he stared down at the ball of white fluff currently trying to catch the flame on his tail.

The monks had royally screwed up.

I mean REALLY, screwed up.

They intended for the Key to go to the most physically strong and mystically enhanced warrior on the Hellmouth.

Before hell-o-ween that would have been Miss Bimbo-Blonde. Buffy's IQ had really taken a dive and her common sense was just not there.

Still, while Willow may be working the mojo, Buffy had been stronger. While Giles knew tons more, Buffy had more mysticism in her blood.

But now, Xander was a species never seen on this planet with magic, not in his blood, but for blood.

And, well, with the memories he'd kept and how big he was, physically he was as-strong-as if not stronger than the Slayer.

So, the not-researched-enough spell latched on to him something fierce and resulted in….

A white puff ball that would not stop chasing the flame on his tail.

They had meant to give the Slayer a sister for her to protect.

Instead they had given him a sister to rear.

She wasn't exactly real. She had been made, not born.

But what did he care?

He was a formerly-one-of-a-kind creature created by chaos magic who used to be human.

So his new little sister used to be a ball of energy.

He had two sets of memories thanks to his rather unique make up.

One, where he was alone.

And another, where he had this amazing little girl in his life that mimicked her big brother and loved him like family was supposed to.

"Come here squirt."

The cub in question growled and swatted at his nose as he bent down, grabbing her by her ruff and tossing her up in the air, only to land safely on his mane. A few little adjustments and she was safely ensconced, tiny claws clinging just to fur and helping her stay on.

"We goin' ta Joyce's?"

"Yup. Maybe if you're good and don't make me chase you on the way I'll ask her to make some of that cocoa for us to drink. And maybe, just maaaaybeeeeee…"

"Yeah?"

Xander smirked, just imagining her wide-eyed look of anticipation.

"I'll ask her about that shiny new DVD I saw the other day. What was it again? Something about giant alien robots?'

There was a squeal he would swear could crack concrete and a glomp around his neck. She liked the oddest movies, but at least he usually liked them too. The rest of the trip she stayed remarkably still, if vibrating in excitement. Joyce really did help out with taking care of her when he had to go help with demony things.

He smiled, ruffling up his neck a bit around the cubling.

She was his new light, a bright hope, a reason to keep going.

She was his Dawn, his Dawnie, and he was never going to let her go.

And anyone that tried to take her would be wishing that Meteor had struck them instead.


	18. CH 17: Actions and Reactions

"Buffy, I'm sorry."

"There has to be someone else! I mean, why would an evil law firm give you an amulet and say only you can use it? They have to be trying to trick you! There has to be someone else!"

"Buffy, the text specifically translates as: _Born of human and no longer, Raised in darkness of fang and soul, Taken to the gifted shifting form, and yet still fighting, the Champion will wear this and upon his sacrifice the light of his soul will rise to the skies and the Mouth shall seal_."

"You have to be wrong!"

They had finally come to terms with what they both were, and becoming stronger for it. The pair had even made plans to live together after the Apocalypse was stopped.

Angel pulled her close, tucking her head under his chin and held her tight while she cried. Really, was anything fair anymore? He opened his palm to look at the amulet that would seal the hellmouth…

And was startled when it was snatched from his hand by a pair of talons.

"What!?"

-Get her out of here, Dead Boy. I'll take it from here.-

"Xander?"

The vampire watched as the owl's form blurred and became a familiar red-tailed hawk, amulet clutched tight in his talons.

-There's a hole through the roof. I can go straight down, no waiting. Get her and the others out of here. And Angel?-

The vampire concentrated, sending a feeling of 'what?' in a way he thought Xander might hear.

-Protect them for me.-

Angel thought about the prophecy, the directions for the amulet and realized what Xander was getting at.

With a nod, and no small amount of respect, he pulled Buffy away from where she'd started screaming at Xander's retreating form, telling him to come back.

They had to get the others off the Hellmouth.

* * *

Angel had managed to get all the other girls on to the bus and started Giles driving towards the Hyperion in LA. The girls had already been awakened, but the powers the First was throwing around and his Bringers had everyone worried it wouldn't be enough.

Angel had come through with an 11th hour intervention.

And now they were running.

As the bus hurtled towards LA a lone hawk circled the destroyed high school over an abandoned town.

He loved his girls, but as much as they loved him they needed Angel and Buffy more. He couldn't really fight, despite the morphing powers, too long and he'd be stuck in something else with absolutely no way back.

Besides, that prophesy that Angel spewed out fit him too.

He had been human before Halloween.

He had been raised on the Hellmouth, where vampires abounded.

He had been given the gift of morphing.

He had kept fighting, regardless of losing his human body.

And he'd gladly give his life for his girls.

With a final defiant cry over the hole where the library once was he dove for the hellmouth, the amulet starting to glow and burn in his talons.

The light from the soul of a vampire seeking redemption would have burned the town under, sunk it, and sealed the mouth. The light of a soul that had never stopped fighting, never killed without reason, and protected those he could, shone a hundred times brighter.

* * *

Dawn watched the view of Sunnydale from the back of the bus as it slowly faded from view.

She was the only one who saw the glow begin, and then grow, and then envelope the town, making it look for one moment like some sort of shining beacon.

The concussion wave that hit the bus nearly had it falling into the ditch. Giles pulled over, letting the girls swarm out as the glow began to diminish.

Another rumble shook the ground and those looking closely could see dust sprouting from where the town used to be, and the heavy feeling that had clung to them since entering the hellmouth's territory burned for a moment and was gone.

Xander hadn't sealed the hellmouth with his sacrifice.

He had utterly obliterated it.

Dawn sank to the ground and cried. Her best friend was gone. But Xander hadn't left her with nothing.

He had called her extraordinary. She'd live up to that.

But for now, the teen grieved the loss of another member of her family.

* * *

~1 year later~

"Thanks for coming down here Dawn."

"No problem Cordy. I needed some downtime anyway."

"Only you would call helping research an evil law firm downtime. Then again with the research department you're developing, the watcher training regimens, and your plans to go to Africa in a few months, I can see how that might work."

Dawn had done a lot of growing in the time since the collapse. Gotten her bachelor's degree in languages, set up watcher training for new recruits to the Reformed Council, and started the search for lost Slayers in Africa. She had taken her work seriously, and become one of, if not the, most valued members of the High Council.

Surprisingly, the former cheerleader and the book geek got along really well. Both had an eye for fashion and a sense for ruthlessness when what was theirs was threatened. They could relax around each other, be blunt, and know that no one was really going to take it personally.

The guys didn't get them.

Cordy had loved that her introduction to Gunn had involved flipping him into a wall. Not that she liked violence that much, but because it helped drive home the 'women are not weak' idea that the big man sometimes had problems with.

Wesley and dawn had been awkward until he asked a question about a particular demonic language.

After that, geek heaven.

"Hey Dawn, I'm going to run upstairs and change to go home. I don't want to have demon guts in my hamper again. Do you need a set of spares?"

"Nah, brought my bag. Thanks though. And tell Dennis I said hello and thank you for the flowers."

"Flowers?"

"Mom's favorites. Her birthday, you know?"

Cordy couldn't help but smile. That explained the nice little bouquet in the hotel room she'd been given at the Hyperion. At least now they knew Dennis could go anywhere Cordelia went.

"He's a sweetie. Back in a few."

She had showered and changed into loose track clothes when a vision hit. Not like a ton of bricks, but actually painless and with the vaguest sense of 'time to move'.

Gasping she turned to the room's bed, seeing something coalesce on it.

When it was done here eyes were fit to pop out of her head.

"OH. MY. GODDESS. OHMY_GODDESS_! **ANGEL**! _**DAWN**_!!!"

She couldn't move even hearing the entire Fang Gang plus one come thundering up the stairs and down the hall.

Angel and Dawn could only stare in shock.

"What the hell? Who is he!?"

"Dear lord, is that …!?"

With a cry Dawn rushed forward, pulling the limp form into her arms and shaking. "Xander!"

-He will be fine.-

The group turned to see what looked like an old man with stars for eyes.

-Tell him Toomin says 'enjoy your gift' and 'thank you.'-

The old man faded away, leaving Dawn, Angel, and Cordelia gaping. They knew who that was.

Oblivious to it all, the newly resurrected Xander Harris-Fangor slept on, a small smile on his face.


	19. CH 18: Xander Luck

He was going to kill Dawn.

Well, not Dawn. She hadn't known either.

But Andrew, _Andrew_ was going to be human paste.

And then he was going to turn him over to Willow.

He was stuck on the roof of the new council building in England.

His shirt was gone, in tatters in some girl's hands.

It was windy.

And he just _knew_ it was going rain soon.

Harris luck would see to it.

Grumbling and wrapping his wings around himself he thought back over how he'd gotten into this miserable situation.

* * *

The last heavy rain had revealed some leaking in the roof of HQ and Xander was, as usual, the one to fix it. He didn't mind. He liked the work and it kept him away from the girls for a bit.

Plus it let him work his wings a bit. Who knew they could get so stiff when they weren't out?

He'd just finished bringing the last load of tools down from the roof when a sharp gust blew by and snapped his wings to the side.

"Yeowch!"

"Xander? You ok?"

"Yeah Dawnie, think I just might have overdone it today. Usually a gust like that wouldn't even faze me, but now the damned things feel tight."

"Tell you what, meet me in the physical therapy room in 20 minutes and wear your sweats."

He wasn't going to argue when Dawn got that look.

He had shown up, in old sweatpants and a t-shirt on the verge of the trash bin it was so threadbare. Still, uber comfy clothes and they helped his mood a little if not his back.

Dawn was standing by the therapy table, which had a large towel over it, with a small cart nearby. A few towels and what looked like one of those hand sauna things Buffy raved over were stacked on it plus a few bottles that he had no clue as to their contents.

"Ok, take your shirt off and hop up. Lie on your belly and let your wings out."

His eyebrows rose, but again, not arguing with the near Resolve Face. Dawn's wasn't as effective as Willow's, but it could still get him if she was ticked enough.

"You're not going to do mojo on me, are you?"

"No magic, just magic hands."

And then she'd started in on the bases of his wings and any thoughts of escaping were _nixed_. He had no idea where she'd learned this kind of thing but it felt _good_. They worked out knots that he hadn't even known about. Somehow she'd found one of his favorite comfort smells was pine and gotten oil that smelled like it to help work everything out. The little sauna thing held stones that she placed around the joints of his wings and a little careful prodding by her had found his own oil glands just above the joint and took the time to straighten and preen his feathers.

It took her over an hour and by the time she was done he was a puddle of Xander-goo.

"Dawnie, I _so_ owe you one for this. As soon as I can move again."

"You're welcome. I'll just turn the lights down and let you nap for a bit. Drink a lot of water later to clear that stuff from your system and you should feel good for a while. You need this again, you let me know."

"Will do. And Dawnie?"

"Yeah Xand?"

"You, me, dinner at your choice of place next weekend. Even if it's that fancy French place."

He got a kiss to his forehead and nodded off as Dawn wandered out.

What he _hadn't_ known was that Andrew liked him _that_ way.

That Andrew had set up cameras in all the places Xander worked so he could watch from his laptop no matter where he actually was, including when he helped a few of the girls with problem shoulders and knees after a rough night's patrol.

That he had watched Dawn give him a rub down and was practically comatose at seeing Big Guy Xander zoned out and blissful from the rub his wings got and was insanely jealous that Dawn got to touch his wings.

That he watched that video whenever he could.

That he'd gotten caught and forced to share the video with a fair number of the girls.

Now Xander wasn't homophobic. Not at all. He was however Andrew-phobic.

Add in that Andrew's obsession had caused no less than 20 of the girls to chase him around the house, trying to catch him and get a chance to play with his wings and maybe molest him enough to get their own look and Xander was damn well not staying in range of slayers with raging hormones.

* * *

He'd made it to the door, just as some girl grabbed the back of his t-shirt and tugged. His wings had come out, shredding the rest of it and before any of the others could latch on he was gone.

They thought he'd flown off.

He'd hidden on the roof, not wanting anyone to spot him.

"Stupid little pervert."

Andrew was dead! End of story.

Maybe he could get Giles to pull a Ripper on him. That had potential.

"Hey mate, never seen you around here before."

Xander was so involved in his thoughts of revenge he hadn't heard the other come up on him.

"Name's Gryf. You part of a new clan? Perhaps know Goliath and his lot?"

"Huh? Sorry, clan?"

"Of gargoyles."

It took a moment but he remember what Giles had told them about the local creatures and demons. Gargoyles were on the invite list.

"Ah, not gargoyle, human with magicked on wings. Chaos mage."

"That's rotten luck. Well, I know humans don't tolerate the chill well, want to come back to the shop with me? Maybe meet the others?"

"You're going to trust me with your clan's location after just meeting me?"

"Well, the way I see it is this, there's some very specific tales of a winged human who likes to pal around with a bunch of girls and had something to do with the sudden drop in demon activity since moving in to a rather large estate in London. And really, I doubt there are two of you."

Xander couldn't help but smile at that. He liked this guy.

"All right. Name's Xander.'

He offered his hand and felt one larger than his grip it in a friendly greeting.

"Come on then, Una will probably have a cuppa ready by the time I'm expected back and I doubt she'll mind another friend."

The two took off towards a more crowded sector of London and Xander had to smile at his luck. Only he would befriend a gargoyle after being molested by a pack of horny Slayers.

Xander luck at its finest.


	20. CH 19: Check the Content

"Hold on, you're telling me you're from another dimension?"

"yup. Willow grew up and her power just kinda…. well it's best described as a sponge. What she could do with information, she did with spells and knowledge. She just learned more and more and her power didn't tap out of seem to limit. Instead it grew and then with Dawn finally waking her bit as the Key…. Let's just say that vacations were now much more interesting."

"So the Watcher's Council?"

"Leads the fight against demons and the darker ones. Things like Trigon, Slade, Ras Al Ghoul, well you get the idea. And yes I know Slade is human but he's sold his soul a few times over. As far as we're concerned, he's an apocalypse waiting for open season to hit."

"And why are you in this dimension now?"

"Well, there was a cartoon I liked as a teen. Listening to TV was better than listening to drunk-buzz snoring any day. I needed a costume and thought 'hey, that'll work on the cheap!', bought a set of blue contacts and voila."

"You couldn't have come earlier?"

"Not without creating a paradox and/or negating someone's existence. Times don't always match up when you cross borders."

"Then how big a difference will there be when you get back?"

"Only as long as I'm here. Once we visit a place we stay on pretty much the same time frame. Lucky for me, you haven't moved, ever."

Terry watched a slightly abashed look cross his mentor's face.

"How did she get that to work?"

"Willow? Or Dawn? Doesn't matter, the techno babble caused brain freeze in five multi-syllable words. I stopped trying to understand them years ago. Just smile and nod at the right places and make sure to get at least one or two points to make it look like you're listening, and you're good to go. Well, that and carry a piece or two of good chocolate in a pocket in case they're in a 'mood'."

"A mood?"

"Language with too many crossovers into other dialects or a spell with too many twitchy components or some deity's name wrong and you end up with 'spring bees' instead of a 'spring breeze'."

"Ah."

"I don't want to think of how weird your life is. And I'm a teen, wearing a bat-suit, who counts a creepy lady who can turn into ink as a bad date."

"Oh kid, don't get me started about bad dates."

The man shuddered and the two bats looked rather amused.

"Should we ask?"

"Only if you both get your heads out of your asses and ask them out already. You, Barbara is NOT a little girl and quite frankly you're being an idiot. And YOU, I know I was oblivious for Wills but max has the hots for you and Dana's NOT going to be able to keep up with the dual-identity thing."

"I'm too old"

And as Bruce opened his mouth to finish that statement Xander flung a gob of something blue and glowing into his mouth, making the former bat cough and choke as he swallowed it.

"Mohra blood. Icky, yet effective."

Terry watched as the years seemed to melt off the billionaire.

"This isn't going to turn out the the Lazarus Pits, is it?"

The watcher nearly fell to the floor laughing.

"You want something to laugh at next time you encounter the crazy guy?"

"What?"

"You know how you should check the contents before you use anything? The Lazarus Pits are all filled with one thing, Mohra fecal matter."

There was a beat of silence.

The bats both fell to the floor laughing, sides aching, tears streaming and Ace barked and wagged his tail.

He liked this human.


	21. CH 20: Not Gone

AN: I have NO idea what the heck happened to churn this out, but I'm pretty danged proud of it. Enjoy!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Xander? Can't you?"

Giles was the only one who knew the truth about him and the little wolf 'plushie' Dawn always carried around with her. That was intentional. If Buffy and Willow with their fray-adjacent ideas thought he was home safe he would have one less thing to worry about when it came to doing his job.

"No, something's blocking, me, blocking us. We can't pinpoint her."

"Don't worry, we'll find her."

"I know we will."

The cold look on the teen's face made the former watcher almost pity the ones who'd taken Xander's charge.

Almost.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

He couldn't believe it had come down to this.

Dawn had been taken, tied to a tower, and stabbed before either himself or LaVelle could get to her.

Doc wouldn't be a further problem though.

"Alexander?"

"I'm here, Dawnie."

"It hurts."

"I know. Go to sleep now, it'll be better when you wake up."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

A little extra help from Sleep and Dawn was limp in his arms. He swooped down to where Buffy and Spike were at the base of the platform, jaws slack as they viewed him.

"Take care of her. She's going to be upset for a while."

"But the portal…"

"I've got it covered."

Buffy held her sister tight, letting Spike hug the both of them.

"Thank you."

He nodded and took to the sky again, circling the growing portal.

_-Are you really going to do this?-_

_-I have to.-_

_-I could do it.-_

_-No you can't. You're a purely magical construct. I'm a human plus. The spell made it so we're related by blood and by magic.-_

_-It'll kill her if you sever that kind of connection!-_

_-No it won't. I made sure. She won't even feel it. I've got to go before that thing gets any bigger.-_

_-I understand.-_

Hovering next to him, white and gold wings spread in a nonexistent breeze, the guardian didn't have to imagine the look of grief on his canine face.

_-Hey, no goodbyes. It's never the end.-_

_-I know. I'll miss you, brother.-_

_-I'll miss you too, brother.-_

With that he folded his wings and dove straight for the glowing portal.

Tara and Willow watched, sharing sight, awed by the bright aura that bloomed around the falling angel.

The group winced as he hit the portal, bright light flaring out and temporarily turning night into day. A pulse of power rolled over them and when it was clear again the portal was gone, and the angel was falling to earth.

Buffy winced as he collided with a mound of building materials. She stepped closer, barely noticing the others doing the same. Even Spike couldn't help but shed a few tears for the beautiful broken form. Oddly enough the body started to fade from view, seeming to dim, and bit by bit just fade away into nothing.

She was glad Dawn was asleep, it would have broken her heart to see the dead angel.

None of them noticed the little golden wolf that tucked itself into Dawn's grip, a few silver and ebony feathers in his mouth.

* * *

~ two or three realities to the left~

"Hang on, I'll get you somewhere safe."

He didn't know who had pulled him out of the snow and cold.

He didn't know who had bothered with his worthless self, not when the woman he loved left him to die slowly in the cold of the Artic.

He didn't know why, but he wasn't going to argue.

Remy LeBeau passed out as what he'd later believe was an angel carried him to warmth and safety.

* * *

~a few years later~

"There's a portal opening up!"

"What!? I thought we'd shut those down permanently!"

"Only from inside our own reality, not outside!"

The assembled group could only stand in shock at the news that had just been delivered. All but one.

"We be fine."

"How the heck do you know that?"

Red on black eyes watched a small figure rising towards the portal. One clothed in dark blues with a long trail of black behind it, silver glinting off the wings.

"Just a friend getting called home."

'Safe trip, mon amie.'

-_Good life, redeemed_.-

The mutant stared as the figure rose to the portal and vanished in a flash of green light, finally, finally feeling like he might be forgiven.

'Thank you.'

* * *

"I'm sorry Dawnie."

"I'm not."

The First was coming, the girls were panicking, and everyone was waiting for the end.

But she noticed something no one else did. There was one person who never walked the halls, no matter how much guilt was felt over him being gone. It would have been their undoing in a heartbeat.

The First had never once taken his appearance.

The others never noticed, too lost in confusion and pain.

But Dawn Summers just smiled and clutched two black and silver feathers in her hand, grinning ferally as the little wolf on her shoulder howled. Willow gasped as power started to flow out from the younger Summers girl and one of the doorways in the house started to glow green around the edges. The knob turned and the scent of night time, clear skies and the muted spice of Magick flowed into the house.

Time for some payback.


	22. CH 21: Fitting In

AN: My muse got into the 'funny water'; it's the only thing that explains this chapter. That's the story and I'm sticking to it!

* * *

He'd left the others some time ago. It wasn't that he didn't want to be around them. It was just…. How could he explain not aging to them? What he was now, that he was happy, had a family that he loved dearly?

How could he explain that he couldn't stay?

Someday, getting sooner all the time, he'd leave and he didn't think he'd be able to come back.

When they'd started trying to push him out again he'd let them, hurt and sad, but knowing it had to happen.

So he'd stepped back, watched from shadows and blinds, helped them as he could and watched from the outside looking in.

They'd all lived full lives, buffered by money he'd made from inventions, the stock market, and a myriad of demon nests raided. As far as they knew their Xander-shaped friend died at home in his sleep years ago, an unknown heart condition. They had been sad, Willow especially, but they had moved on, as he knew they now could.

A tingle raced up his spine, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

Soon!

"Sidewinder! Get your sneaky aft up here!"

"Time, Xan?"

A lone motorcycle zoomed to his side, completely driverless. The gold paint was patterned in a way that looked like scales. A hum and the bike shifted and settled as a tall, slender, and undeniably female, robot.

"Yup! Call the kids, we gotta move!"

Green optics lit up as the call went out. Within thirty minutes a small herd of self-mobile phones was clustered around his feet (he made sure to NEVER sneeze in a cell phone store again), a sleek sports car, and a pair of heavier vehicles. More humming and soon he was looking up at another female and two male robots, and had smaller ones clamoring around his ankles.

Sidewinder looked over the group, doing a quick check and nodded when she found all were present.

"Everyone ready?"

"Yessir!"

"Then let's go!"

A flare of blue and white energy lit the field and in the blink of an eye it was empty once again.

* * *

~*~a few dimensions to the right~*~

"Why didn't one of you tell me!?"

"It was better you didn't know. And we'd already made the decision that the sacrifice was better than the alternative."

Sam Witwicky was understandably upset. He'd just found out that in killing the tyrant (which still bothered him greatly) he had effectively doomed his friends to extinction. The reminder of Jazz's still form behind them didn't help his composure. His guardian warbled softly in distress, running a finger down the troubled teen's back.

"That doesn't make it any better. You're going to die out someday and it's my fault."

There were tears on his face and even Ratchet had a hard time keeping his composure at the devastation there. Sam wasn't even part of their race, hadn't even known them more than a few short weeks, but he still felt this strongly about them and their welfare.

The scene was shattered when a wall of blue and white energy washed over the area, followed by a bevy of shouts, clangs, and groans.

"Anybody get the license plate on that truck?"

"It's ZZX 312, you know that Xander."

"And again, human humor falls short. Thanks, Griz."

A few clicks and whirrs came from the pile.

"…Oh, now I see, picking on the little people. Should I have the Mighty Minis get in on this?"

"""No, Sir!"""

"That's better."

A rather confused bunch of Autobots managed to get themselves disentangled from the mass of metal and stood to observe the scene. Two femmes stood, one a gold motorbike and one a forest green SUV. The larger one was helping sort out a number of smaller robots who had seemingly all piled together on top of something. Two mechs stood back and let the femmes do as they wanted, warned by a glare from the motorbike that they were not needed to make things worse.

"Whew! Ok, remember, humans are NOT to be piled upon, they can squish!"

"Sorry Xander."

Sam was reminded strongly of a bunch of elementary school kids with the in sync reply.

Bumblebee was just confused.

An older teen hopped up, ruffling his hair into non-order and looking around with dark blue eyes that were filled with mischief.

"Hi, I'm Xander. You're Bumblebee, Ratchet, Optimus Prime, Ironhide and Sam Witwicky. Behind me are the lovely femmes Sidewinder and Fortress, the mechs are Grizzly and Torque, the little guys are…." The teen paused to look at the mass at his feet. "Too numerous and confusing to name while they're swarming, so we'll get to them later. How goes?"

The 'bots were trying to get over their confusion while the new arrivals just seemed to go with it and were moving around so they weren't all clustered on the lone human in their group.

"Hello."

Bumblebee was surprised to see the gold femme in front of him, holding the human called Xander.

"Mind if I have a look at your neck? I might be able to help and I promise not to hurt you."

Bee looked to Sam, who shrugged. Giving a nod he tilted his head back a bit and felt small warm hands touching and then a swell of energy started to build. Ratchet twitched and reached for one of his tools.

"What the slag!? I'm picking up AllSpark energy!"

Before the bots could do more than make noises of surprise the energy was gone again.

And Bee was looking into a pair of dark blue eyes.

"Try that."

The normal scratch was gone and there was no pain. Somehow his face felt different. Raising his free hand he found that instead of the speaker that had been a replacement for his ruined parts there was derma and plating like there was vorns ago.

Bumblebee grinned.

"Thank you."

Optimus Prime had the biggest look of shock on his face even as Bumblebee kept smiling. Ratchet immediately took out his scanners and started checking the scout over while Ironhide watched on in awe.

They really should have known to watch the human by now.

"Hey! Lazyaft, **WAKE UP**!"

All optics turned to see the human standing on the berth that held jazz's body, pull a hand back and swat the plating.

There was a bolt of lightning, a crash, a flare of light and a rather loud yelp.

"YEOWCH! Who the slag zapped me on the aft!?"

The Autobots stared as Jazz hopped off the berth, dancing around and clutching his rear.

Then Ironhide started laughing in great, bellowing guffaws.

"Only Jazz would come back from the dead from a smack on the aft!"

There really was nothing much else to do but laugh at that, albeit carefully in Bumblebee's case as he still held Sam. Both were grinning when the new femme and human joined them.

Then Sidewinder got a look on her face.

"Hmmm, hello cutie."

Bumblebee stopped cold, completely taken by surprise as the femme sidled up to him and started playing with the joints of his doorwings. Sam tried not to snicker too loudly as the deer-in-headlights look Bee was sporting and the way his 'wings were twitching from the touch.

Xander grinned.

They were going to fit in fine.


	23. CH 22: Friendly Skies

It was warm and the sun was out, fluffy clouds dotting the skyline, thermals rose easily over the beach despite the waves that cooled them. All in all it was a wonderful day.

"Wow."

"That's what I said the first chance I had to do this. There's flying, which is great, and there's battle-flying, which is just plain scary, and then there's cruising. The cruising just makes up for every other sucky thing in my life." Well, almost anyway. Nothing would make up for Jesse.

He smiled over at Dawn, just a bit beyond the tip of his wing. Being made of the Slayer's blood, and (surprise!) his, it had given her a bit of the leftovers from Halloween.

Dawn could become a +Anima.

And much to Glory's anger and confusion, she had that night on the tower.

Right as that bastard Doc was going to stab her she jumped off the tower as a mourning dove flew by. Next thing Dawn knew she was flapping like mad away from the tower and the enraged goddess. At least she kept her wits about her to stay out of the goddess' reach.

Xander smirked.

Apparently all that super strength also came with super sensitive hearing. Buffy's enraged shriek had knocked her right out. Xander'd gotten the fun of knocking Doc into one of those industrial sized cement mixers and added in his own little concoction of explosives.

Turns out the sleaze ball couldn't regenerate from burnt limbs. Pity.

The others had all rushed off to look after Dawn once she'd landed, he'd headed towards where he'd seen Glory fall, trying to figure out what happened to the hell goddess.

He hadn't expected to see Ben there, sporting the same injuries the goddess had and looking really ragged. Then he'd had a flash of insight.

To kill Glory for good, they'd have to kill Ben.

Ben had been too weak to fight, or even really protest much. Xander hadn't wanted to be the one to do it, but he refused to call one of the others over to do it. There was a medical bag in the ambulance they'd used to bring Tara with them, and a few vials of morphine in one of the cases.

He'd asked Ben what he wanted done with his remains, gotten the answer of cremation and being sent home, and Xander had given him a lethal overdose of morphine. Ben had painlessly gone to sleep, and never woken up. He deserved that much mercy for taking care of Joyce as much as he had.

Giles had known, figured it out as soon as he'd seen Xander's face after they were all collected back at Casa de Summers. Spike too, and gotten a nod of respect and regret from the vamp.

Dawn never knew, was never told and never would be told if he had his way. He was fine with that bit of secrecy. It was needed for his sanity.

Now, he was teaching her all the flying tricks he'd learned with his time as Cooro and the ones he'd invented himself. Buffy had wanted to teach her, but the differences between skin wings and feathers were just too many.

He looked over at his flying buddy and grinned.

Gray and white and little black flecks, a faint whooping noise when she was startled into flight too fast. She didn't have quite the staying power he did in flight, but she could maneuver almost as well as he could already.

Dawn was going to be a fantastic flyer.

In the story, the ones who gained +Anima when they were scared and threatened could lose them when they felt safe.

He'd never lose his.

Not because he never felt safe or happy. Quite the contrary.

Bright sunlight warmed his feathers as he flapped a bit ahead of Dawn, waggling his wing tip at her in an approximation of a wave, making her giggle even as she tried to keep her own flight straight and true.

The crow was so much a part of him. As much if not more so than the hyena that purred contentedly in the back of his mind. He was warm and safe and happy and had pack so she was just happy to go to den and snooze like a metaphysical log.

He was the crow, and the crow was him.

Looking over at Dawn as she tried to pull even with him again he smiled.

Dawn was the same with her dove and Buffy with her bat, not matter her protests.

Their home was the friendly skies, day or night.

Giving a whoop of delight he did a few loops and dives that had Dawn shouting behind him, laughing and just trying to keep up.

They were +Anima.

And they always would be.


	24. CH 23: By The Steps

"What are we going to do? The last time an Olvikan ascended it took a volcanoe to stop it!"

"Chill Giles, we've got this covered."

"Why am I not assured?"

"Because you don't know any better."

The three teens grinned, and the Watcher polished his way through yet another set of glasses.

Did anyone sell those in bulk perhaps?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"So Wills, whatcha got for the vampires?"

"Sun Flowers."

"Seriously?"

"I love the embarrassment factor."

"I've finally corrupted her, woot! Ok, Buffy, think you can handle the boom?"

"No big deal. Just need you to do your bit. Speaking of, what are you doing?"

"Super-sonic-slice-and-dice, version 2.0."

"Ginzu is so green with envy."

"And the parents?"

"Fencing."

"As in sharp-and-pointies or white picket?"

"Picket. Found a new trick."

"We've got to have another show and tell session later."

"Yeah."

"Definitely."

"Anything we forgot?"

"Ummm, DB?"

The girls looked at Xander, then eachother.

"Shit."

Xander sighed. "I'll handle it."

* * *

"But she'll need me there to help fight that thing."

"No, no she won't. In fact, if you show up she's going to have to protect your pasty ass because you'll be right in the middle of the trap we have set, _for the vampires_."

"She can't get all of them at once."

"Perhaps not, but Wills can."

"I know she's good at magic but"

"Shut up. When you walked away frm her you made your choice. She's made hers and she's still, for some gods unknown reason, trying to protect you. So you will stay here, out of danger and let her do her damned job."

Xander had finally had enough with the brooding vampire and dropped his hologram.

"What the hell are you?"

"The same as Buffy and Willow, we're advanced. You cross us, you don't stand a chance."

Before the vampire could say anything else Xander was gone in a blur of purple and gold.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The students stared as the mayor started to shift and change.

"Ok, everybody out!"

The appearance of a giant pink spider throwing web-patterned energy shields around didn't help matters.

In seconds the entire auditorium was empty save for the three shape changers.

"Step one!"

Willow moved, throwing an arm out. Suddenly the grounds were full of flowering vines. The vamps were startled for a second before turning to ash.

"Now that's my kind of flower. Very nice Wills."

"Thanks Xander."

"Step two!"

Buffy moved, throwing one batch of energy lines after another. Soon the mayor was trapped under a blanket of the stuff.

"Ya know, I didn't think you'd manage to get that weave pattern in there, but you did. Very nice."

Buffy grinned and handed him a batch of cylindrical objects that Willow and herself had tinkered with.

"Your turn!"

"Step three!"

Xander moved in a blur. Arms and blades moving faster than anyone could track. He sliced as deep as his blades could go, which wasn't as deep as he'd have liked. Still when all was said and done there were dozens of slashes covering the demon's hide, each one sporting an odd looking object.

In a blink he was back by the girls, an arm around each of their waists.

"Step four, let'er blow!"

A clash from the plant and spider and the cheetah was running out the halls of the school with them.

"Good lord!"

They appeared at Gile's side just as the fireball plumed.

"Do I want to know what you used?"

The teens shared a look.

"""No."""

"Ah, then I shall refrain from asking."

"Hmm, nice boom guys."

"Thanks Oz. by the way."

Xander pulled out a set of tickets and handed them to the werewolf.

"You two enjoy, or you won't even see the retaliation coming."

Oz nodded and wandered off with his girlfriend, looking human again.

"Buffy, congrats on the grad."

A card was handed to the Slayer, who in turn squealed, hugged the cat, and ran off to get her mother for a shopping spree.

"Do I want to know where you got the money for those gifts?"

"I live in the fast lane, literally. I read the entire library in about 30 minutes. And I was taking my time! Learning the stock market and researching financing was child's play. Oh! And here's yours."

A card was pulled out, presented, and the cat vanished.

Giles couldn't help but smile. The gift card was for a new acoustic guitar.

Angel vanished behind the fire trucks, never being seen by the group.

Buffy really didn't need him anymore. He doubted she ever really had.


	25. CH 24: Pet

Xander wasn't too sure how he'd gotten here.

He remembered following Buffy and that soldier boy of hers. Watched them both get back safely. Patrolling around town like he always did, checking on Wills and her guy. Everyone home and safe.

Then landing on the roof and something stinging him.

"What the hell?"

Groaning softly he took in his surroundings. The walls and ceiling were blindingly white. The wall in front of his was glass.

And across the hall he could see the curled up form of Spike the vampire.

There was a bad splotch of blood on the back of his head and it looked like he was in pain. And a lot of it.

"Hey, bleach job."

"Sod off, wanker."

"Well at least your personality hasn't changed much. Know where we are?"

"Some place that thinks of things like us as toys to be fucked around with."

That elicited a growl from the feline form.

At least on the upside he'd gotten himself some tough leather pants and a simple shirt. He looked like a dressed cat-man rather than a circus act.

"What did they do to you?"

"Shoved a chip in my head. Made it so I can't feed off of humans. Heard them talk about putting in another, or messing with this. Make it so I have to do what they say."

For as long as he'd known and known about Spike aka William the Bloody, he'd never once heard him sound that dejected or downright _scared_.

Thinking for a moment he walked to the glass, tapping it with one claw. There was a zap of electricity and a dull tone that told him it was thick.

Not too thick though.

Dropping his voice so that only the vamp could hear he planned.

"Wanna get out of here?"

The blonde turned.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dr. Walsh walked down the bright hallways, looking in on some of the latest acquisitions.

"What's this one?"

"Hostile 25. Caught him on the roof of one of the education buildings. Haven't ID'd it yet. It's been seen flying around, fighting other hostiles or following some students, the Slayer and her group."

"Bloody idiots. Thing's not a demon it's a pet."

Usually Dr. Walsh ignored hostile 17, but the …. Treatments seemed to be working.

"What do you mean?"

"That's a gargoyle. A real one. They protect what they see as theirs. It obviously likes the Slayer, protector likes protector, instinct. They probably got it to wear the clothes and have been rewarding it for helping out."

"Intelligence level?"

"A good cat or well trained dog. Depends on how well it was raised and all that."

As much as it was part of the plan it still rankled to be called stupid. Still Xander pulled up his best confused kitty look, complete with twitching ears, tail flick and a tentative sounding purr.

Dr. Walsh watched the feline creature carefully. It showed no reaction to the vampire's speech, just looked like any confused housecat might.

"Open the door. You guard it. I want to try something."

"Ma'am."

The door to his cell opened and Xander carefully didn't act like a sentient creature trying to escape. He just lifted his ears, looked confused and waited while the doctor and a guard entered. When the guard tried to get closer to him he hissed warningly and backed away a bit, growling softly.

"The guns. It'll know what those are. Might tolerate them, but won't like them near."

"Stand down."

The guard moved back towards the door, looking tense. Xander stopped growling, but didn't get up from his crouch.

The doctor approached, hand out, palm up. For a moment he kept up the 'wary cat' look them slowly arched his neck forward and sniffed her hand. Ugh, absolutely revolting, dead things and demon carcasses. Thankfully that didn't show on his face.

He finally let up on the agitated twitching and perked his ears. She took the signal and rubbed behind one and he let loose a bone rattling purr.

When she grinned and turned towards the door his hand snaked out and touched the glass wall. The electricity jumped from the wall, through him, into the human doctor and from her to the guard.

Xander had underestimated the amount of juice the walls and such could dish out though. The electric eel in his DNA let him absorb it to an extent, but he knew it was coming close to 'freaking stupid' level when his arms and chest started to hurt.

With a roar he let go of all the built up electricity plus his own stores, feeding it back through the system.

Pandemonium broke out as doors opened and soldiers rushed through trying to contain or kill the hostiles. Xander managed to knock out the first wave that made it towards him, but nothing more. The overload was too much and he fell to the floor.

For just a moment he thought that Spike glanced back at him before everything went dark.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Spike was careful and crafty and he was very, _very_ smart. One did not live a century under the thumb of Angelus and not learn to survive by wits while seeming a dotard.

He had found a place to use, a house, complete with window coverings and furniture and a nicely well-built basement for the things he needed for his flat mate.

The cat had helped him when he hadn't needed to, gotten them all out of that hell pit. And the damned fur ball would have died in there if they'd found him. Now many thought that Spike had no honor, that wasn't true. It just took a lot to get it where it was noticed.

When the cat had shocked that doctor to death, intentional or no, he was grateful because they could never go back in his head and make him their puppet.

Dru's ramblings about a dark kitten were making much more sense now.

Tray in hand he headed for the basement.

The cat had knocked himself out good and proper, used up a rather large amount of energy too. His hands were burnt and hurting, his chest was tight and twitched a bit from muscle stress.

"All right mate, let's get you cleaned up."

The clothes had been removed, the pants stripped off and the shirt cut, leaving the feline flyer naked as a jaybird on the bed the vampire set up. Two tubs of warm water later and the cat was clean, back on the bed with Spike wrapping his hands up.

A bit of a tilt and some maneuvering and warm broth went down the throat easily, never causing a cough or choke. Over a century with a mad sire taught one many things.

His stomach hurt, and he looked at the sleeping cat, the marks at the join of neck and shoulder.

He vamped out and bit down carefully.

There's never be a scar, and he couldn't exactly stay strong on otter blood alone, especially since it was hard to get. Even if it took him longer to heal, at least they'd both be safe in the house with the wards up. That was worth keeping up his strength.

Belly filled comfortably, he let go of the bite and lapped at it to help it heal. The cat slept on, dreams uninterrupted. Good, the bloke needed it. Spike put the things back on the tray and headed upstairs to get his own things in order.

The fact that the cat-creatures blood tasted so good was beside the point.


	26. CH 25: Poetry

"I cannot believe you did that."

"I can't believe it worked!"

Xander sat in the library looking rather smug. Spike had become a problem and that solar ray trick only worked if that gem was off his hand.

And another problem, there were Plans for Spike later down the line. Big ones.

He hated that he knew enough not to screw something up, but not why.

Thankfully, this little trick had worked.

~*~flashback~*~

"Why don't you just toast me then, wanker?" Spike was all fanged grin, holding a few girls behind him via minion. Dru was he didn't-want-to-know where, and the girls were off somewhere doing something.

Xander sighed and rolled his eyes. "The Powers That Be Aggravating have Plans for you."

That stopped the vamp in his tracks.

"Huh?"

"You, William, are going to play a big freaking part in keeping the world from ending within a few years. I kill you like I very, _very_ much want to, I screw over everyone. Thus, you get a get-out-of-flambé-free card, so long as you don't hurt those people. You hurt them, and we'll test the limits of that ring."

The vamp looked nervous for a moment before pulling his Master vampire mask back in place. Stupid, stubborn vamp.

"Don't believe you, mate. What's to say you don't just want them gone before toasting my arse?"

"Cuz I would have done it by now, idiot."

Xander sighed again, trying to think of someth….

Waitaminute.

"You were a poet, right? Before you were turned?"

Now Spike looked nervous again.

"Yeah, what of it?"

"What if I could guarantee that your poems would be well received? That that little twitchy bit of inspiration that you never seemed to be able to hold on to suddenly clicked into place and you could really, really _write_?"

A few moments passed without either of them moving.

"Take the humans outside and let 'em go. Night's off."

The minions growled a bit until Spike staked one of them. Then they moved nice and quick to get the humans out.

"How can you guarantee that?"

~*~end flashback~*~

"I didn't think they'd listen to you."

"Well, it was worth a shot. I mean, so far they like me enough."

"That's true."

"Hi Calliope. By the way, did I thank you for that yet?"

"Yes you did, but it's still nice to hear. William's been giving me quite a lauding as well. And it's rather sweet. I haven't been talked about like that in a few centuries."

"Glad you enjoy it. If you and… oh dang it I can never get her name right."

"Erato."

"Right, Erato, I swear I'm gonna get that right sometime soon, anyway, if you and Erato are still free tomorrow night I'm still quite happy to take you out for an evening of 'mortal entertainment'."

"We look forward to it. See you then."

A flash of light and the muse was gone.

Xander smiled, turning and facing three gobsmacked expressions.

"What!?"

"You can call the Muses!?"

"Well yeah, how else do you think that worked?"

Xander indicated a corner of the bistro with his head.

Spike had lost his dark duster and bad-boy image for one of collegiate cool and sophistication, including a pair of thin wireframe glasses. In his hand was a leather-bound journal, from which he was reading prose quietly to a crowd of enraptured listeners.

"Good point."

Hey, whatever works.


	27. CH 26: It's a Girl

AN: Whoops! Sorry for the minor delay, got caught in plotting. Enjoy!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

-Tuesday. Always a Tuesday. You'd think I'd know better than to schedule anything on a Tuesday by now.-

-You can't blame Dawnie for her luck!-

-I'm not, I'm blaming Buffy too. Ever notice that her 'big bads' were always the worst on Tuesdays?-

-What!? That can't be!-

-…..-

-Huh, you're right.-

-Checked it last time for verification. I think the monks pulled a screwball on that trait.-

-That and the taste buds.-

-You 'said' it. Not me!-

-Traitor! Besides, that last one was tobacco and banana!-

-I won't say anything if you won't.-

-Deal-

Xander shut down his mental communication and padded into the big warehouse.

He surveyed the scene, keeping a wary eye on all demons and exits.

Dawn strapped/chained to a big table cum altar? Check.

Big stinky demon is ludicrous robes? Check.

Bad chanting with worse accent in a dead language? Check.

Getting to swoop in and rescue Dawn before the spell finished?

"Let this one become bound to the strongest among us!"

Oh shit.

In the blink of an eye a sparkly black cat rocketed out from the shadows, and slashed the lead demon across the throat. The cat shimmered and much larger, and more dangerous looking, cat-human stood facing the remaining demons with a snarl on his features.

The demons, dumb things that they were, decided to fight.

Some of the Baby Slayers that had been guarding the doors would swear that he danced between fights, taking out demons with ease.

When the threat was gone Xander made his way back to the table where Dawn was strapped, only to find….

A fluffy white kitten?

"Mew?"

The kitten sat up, looking more than a bit dizzy, blinking large green eyes at him.

-Uh, Xander?-

-Yeah Wills?-

-I managed to desypher the spell.-

-And?-

-It's meant to bind the target to the strongest magical individual in a 20 mile radius.-

-So why am I staring at a kitten with Dawn's eyes? Shouldn't she look like you? Or be severely in lust with you?-

-Xander, you're more mojofied than I am.-

-What!?-

-As a Mysto that was raised on the Hellmouth fighting baddies, yeah you're way more in the mojo than I am.-

-So Dawn?-

-Congrats, it's a girl.-

-Oh shit.-

-There abouts.-

-And her being human, or at least human-ish, again?-

-She'll have to work on that, same as the mind talking thing. Until then, you're gonna have a kitten sharing your space.-

-DAMNIT! I'm supposed to go out on a date tomorrow!-

-…..She got the mind thing fast.-

-Yup.-

"To quote the great mind of Giles, oh dear."


	28. CH 27: Nothing To Lose

He was so very tired.

After Buffy found out about Travers she called him a demon, insisting that –her- Xander would never kill, threatening to kill him if she saw him again. Giles had stood back and let it happen. Willow had tried to play intermediary for once, tried to keep Buffy from reacting like this.

Buffy threw her into a wall for her troubles.

He had crushed a chunk of the ceiling blocking her from doing it again. Willow had been a crying messing in his hand, he didn't blame her. One friend never to be human again, the other spouting off how she'd 'save' her from the demon, and the only real father figure either of them had standing back and letting it all happen.

He'd taken Willow home, given her the option of getting Oz, which she did, and setting some of his back up programs running.

They left town that night.

They had driven across the country more than once, traveling where they wanted. His internal systems let Willow hook up her laptop to the internet anywhere they went, letting her get her GED, along with Oz, and apply to colleges while they took their 'Great Road Trip'.

It shocked all three of them when, years later, Giles managed to contact them and ask for help.

Guarding Buffy's sister.

He had rushed back to the Hellmouth, Oz and Willow staying at the college they were both attending.

What he found shocked him to his core. A girl he'd never met before knew him like Buffy used to, remembered Halloween, movie nights, driving when they just needed a break. When she touched him a set of memories flew through his processor, giving him two set so foe memories for the same time.

Even if he hadn't known her, he'd have guarded her, just because she didn't treat him like a freak.

Then the hell goddess came, the host killed by himself, a portal opened, and Buffy jumping.

He took his new little sister with him when he left the Hellmouth, this time for good.

He'd spent many years with Willow, Oz and Dawn, content if not entirely happy.

Willow and Oz had both passed on from old age, Dawn growing up, finding her way in magic and revolutionizing the Watchers. Dawn aged slowly, but she did age. It took almost three millennia, but eventually she passed away, quietly in his hands, watching her last sunrise. The essence of the Key was returned to its form of energy, retreating back to wherever it went when not walking the Coil.

And he wandered on alone.

He still fought the good fight, not having the nerve to end his own existence, and slowly starving from lack of energon. It didn't exist in this world, and he had no means to make it.

And really, he had no reason to try.

"God, Primus, Anyone who's listening, please, I'm so very _tired_."

He shifted into his alt, once again the large semi truck, his version painted like the night sky with comets on his doors, Willow's insistence, and settled in for another unfulfilling recharge.

'_Xander?'_

He must be losing it. That couldn't be Willow's voice he heard.

'_Xander?'_

Dawn's too? Was Oz going to make an appearance? So close to recharge and he could still hear them.

He missed them so much.

And he was so tired of being alone.

'Xander?'

~*~otherplace~*~

-He is worn.-

-But he still has use.-

-He should be allowed to rest.-

-He is needed.-

-We cannot, it would not be right.-

-The need is too great not to.-

-He is not one meant to be in such a position.-

-Yet by the powers of his own world he is a Prime.-

-He has given enough.-

-The other two will need him to teach them.-

-It is too much to ask of any one, man or mech.-

-And yet we need to ask more.-

-On your own heads be it.-

Reality bent, shifted and snapped, leaving an empty space where a large truck once stood.

~*~*~*~*~*~

'_Sorry man, but you're not done yet.'_

_Oz? This was getting too weird._

'_We'll be waiting when you're done.'_

'_Yeah, we promise. Love you Xander.'_

_Please, don't leave me alone. Not again._

'_You're never really alone.'_

'_Just remember us when it gets bad, ok?'_

'_Yellow crayon, Xan. Just another yellow crayon.'_

_I'll be with you, someday._

'_We know. We'll wait.'_

_Be seeing you._

'_Just don't make it too soon, Xan.'_

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The soldiers stood shocked as a huge dark form suddenly materialized in the middle of the battlefield. A huge semi sat there for a moment before a low hum came and it started to shift. Sam dying and coming back had been a huge shock, but this was approaching the limit on the collective weird-shit-o-meter.

It was like Optimus, and not. The armor pattern was similar even if the paint job wasn't. The face was narrower, the optics a darker color, and the overall stance somehow radiating exhaustion and a will to win no matter the cost to himself.

"Hey kid, you ok?"

Sam startled for a moment, his hand still on the sock filled with black sand. The voice sounded so… young compared to the fallen Prime, but so empty.

"Um, yeah."

"Good, be ready to move. I'll cover you."

The soldiers watched as the mech's battle mask lowered into place and its canons came online. An ominous hum and suddenly there were two less Cons on the field.

The Autobots were glad the mech was on their side, he fought efficiently and without mercy. Canons fired and hit every target, swords sliced enemies in two, hands gripped and tore plating from protoform. Twice he took shots meant for their own, shrugging off the damage and wading deeper into the mêlée as Optimus rose and battled the Fallen.

When it was all said and done the Cons barely managed to pull their much smaller numbers back as the dark mech approached the assembled Autobots.

"Who is he, Optimus?"

"I don't know Sam. But I do know that he is a Prime, and that he bears the likeness of nova Prime, one of our greatest leaders and fighters."

"Hello."

"Greeting fellow Autobot, thank you for all your aid. May we know your designation?"

The great mech vented softly.

"I do not have a designation, not anymore."

That was odd, it implied that the loss of name came with a loss of self. Optimus found himself wanting to help this new mech however he could.

"Well, no matter, you are welcome among us. Thanks to you, we lost no one this day."

"You lost friends before?"

"Too many, one only a few years ago."

"I am sorry, I know what that is like."

"Will you come with us?"

"Why not, it's not like I have anywhere else to be."

The ride to Diego Garcia was a bit tense with the new mech, but peaceful over all.

Optimus and Sam talked, rested and dreamed.

~*~dreamscape~*~

-You will need to help him. He has lost much.-

-What has he lost?-

-Everything.-

-how can we help him?-

The Ancient Primes looked down on their two descendants, expressions carefully hidden. Finally One Optimus knew to be nova Prime stepped forward.

-Do not let him be alone. And tell him his name is Novus Prime. He will wear it well.-

-Novus? The one foreseen to be a life-giver and healer?-

-Yes. He is the one.-

-But the way he fought…-

-Is the way one fights when there is nothing left to loose, and very little to gain. Help him, heal him, and you will find an ally great enough to end the war. Farewell Peace Hunter, Far Seer, take our blessings to the Life Giver.-

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The Autobot formerly known as Alexander LaVelle Harris slept with slow dreams, knowing that someday he would see his loved ones, his family, again.

Until then, he'd fight on and make them proud.

Three spirits watched over him.

And smiled.


	29. CH 28: New World, Old Friends

He was a wanderer, and he really couldn't complain about the lifestyle. It suited him. Get to see the world, learn different cultures, help out where it mattered.

Thrashing the baddies was still a novelty 50 years later.

The guys hadn't needed him for a rather long time now and he let himself be pushed out towards a 'normal' life.

Normal life for a SOLDIER was quite nice, thanks.

Sighing contentedly he settled his head on his pack, sword lain at his side and let himself slip off to sleep.

~*~dreamscape~*~

'Hey buddy, ready to move out?'

'Time to go? What's Choco-butt up to?'

There was an entertained snicker that was cut short.

'You really should be more nice to him, considering you're going to be with him for a while.'

'Aerith I presume?'

'Yes.'

'Dang man, you go so lucky.'

'Don't I know it.'

'Flatterers.'

'Darn tootin'. I'm the branch president, personally. Always happy to oblige a pretty customer.'

The giggle reminded him of fresh water streams and sunlight. Huh, neat.

'All right then, scoot!'

There was a dropping sensation in his stomach, a twist and suddenly he was elsewhere.

* * *

"Cloud?"

"Yes Nanaki?"

"I need you to visit please. Something came out of the Lifestream."

"A Remnant?"

"No but… it's not evil, but there's a sense of something odd. Please come."

"As soon as I can. I'll call Cid and the others too."

"Thank you Cloud, see you soon."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Cloud Strife, Savior of the Planet, did not know what to make of things as he first walked into the halls of Bugenhagen's planetarium, Vincent right behind him. The two fighters took in the scene and tried hard to decipher just what was going on.

Nanaki, the regal Guardian Beast, was plopped out on a cushion, his head in a strange male's lap, getting his ears scratched to such an extent it sounded like Fenrir was gunning full throttle without the benefits of mufflers.

"Hey big guy, I think you've got company."

The scritches stopped for and a moment the big cat grumbled before opening bleery eyes to look at his two newest guests.

Abruptly he was on his feet, regal persona back on, looking serene and confident and a little mysterious.

Only the snickering stranger gave clue to the fact it was a front.

"Vincent, Cloud, good to see both of you."

"You too Nanaki." Still a bit stunned the two entered the room.

"Huh, you were right."

For some reason the others in the room didn't think the new man was talking to any of them.

"Nanaki?"

"He says his name is Xander, and he was transported here after his time on his world was up."

Cloud nearly had a heart attack when he saw the sword strapped to the man's back.

The bright, shiny, well-cared for sword that he had visited on the cliffs outside of Midgar not a day before.

"Who the hell are you?"

"SOLDIER First Class, Xander Fair. Been a while Choco-butt."

For just a moment all three of them could see a ghostly apparition next to Xander.

Then Vincent fell over laughing.

"Choco-butt!?"


	30. CH 29: That's One Solution

AN: I hate freeze-out. This was on time, until wouldn't let me load the doc. *grumblegrumblegrumble*

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

This was interesting, and would probably be a lot more amusing if it were happening to someone else.

Willow's easy acceptance and Buffy's little fun with the joyrides was great. Giles had even given up on his old Citroen and let him drive him around for anything that he couldn't walk to.

It was good to take care of his friends.

Later Joyce had accepted him, after a brief screaming fit, of course and Dawn thought he was 'so COOL!'.

Thankfully the younger Summers girl didn't need him to do all the driving. She could actually drive responsibly.

Meaning he didn't have to disconnect his steering from the drive when she got behind the wheel.

Over the years Willow's research had found something disturbing about dawn's Key energies. Apparently they were too much for her human body, specially designed though it may have been. If something wasn't done, her body would fail, probably rot around her but never let her die.

Willow said she had it covered, and he believed her. That Resolve Face meant business, and it always meant that what she said was going to be all right, was all right. End. Of. Story.

Now though he was rushing away from base. There was an unfamiliar Cybertronian signature in the area, and he had no idea if it was a fluke, Willow's 'Find Others Like Me' spell kicking in, or some weird portal thingy brought on by Dawn getting a nose bleed.

He hated the nose bleed scenario most. Dry weather or allergens and suddenly they were hip deep in purple goo or humming blue fur balls. Not fun.

"Good night."

He barely had time to curse himself for his inattention when he felt someone, or something, hit his well-hidden offline button and everything went dark.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Internal workings were all fine as he came back online some time later. The chronometer said he'd been out for a little over six hours.

He didn't panic until he tried to move and found he couldn't.

Looking around he found his arms spread out to his sides, his legs spread a bit apart and pinned to the floor.

Not good.

"Good, you're up."

Xander froze when he spotted the rather lovely femme as she entered the room. She was a little smaller than him, emerald green with metal-flake-lime trim. Her alt had to be a small car or, from the looks of the wheels, a large motorcycle. She didn't have any apparent insignia, but that didn't mean much.

"Hmm, very nice to be the same size, or at least close, again. And I'm rather sick of this avoidy business you've been doing."

He goggled at her for a few moments before his processors caught up with the mixed Scooby-speak.

"DAWN!?"

"Yup. Now, you are going to stay put and no more avoidiness! I've cut off your outside comm. and your holoform. You said I'm almost as good as 'that wrench-wielding terror' so you know I can turn it all back on again later."

The grin that crossed her faceplates made him shiver a bit in spite of himself.

"But for now, you are here, so am I, and not going anywhere for the nearish future."

He looked at his hands and feet. Yup, magnetic cuffs that he'd helped design in case they managed to get any unfriendles of his sort in this world. The berth, however the heck she'd managed it, was sturdy, thick and not likely to give in to whatever sort of tricks he might have been able to use to free himself.

"Uh, are you feeling ok? I mean, non-demony, friend even, and yet I'm stuck. Mind letting me up?"

Puppy-bot eyes failed.

"Not happening, you'll run. And right now I really want to figure out how much fun we can have with these bodies."

She pulled up a modified drill that had him pulling back before she did something to his neck. When he went to protest he found he could only make clicks, whirrs and the like as if he were a sparkling.

"Hmm, I wonder…"

She trailed off and started slipping deft hands over his chassis, carefully plucking at seams and running over armor plates, laughing when a finger went just-so around his audio and made him shake.

Xander had no idea how long she kept up her exploration-teasing-torture but he knew the moment when she merged her spark with his and sent him offline in a haze of bliss.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

~*~one week later~*~

"Hey guys."

"Xander!"

Even years later, Willow still greeted him with a glomp to his leg. It always made him smile.

"So, Dawn finally let you up, huh?"

"Meanie, you planned this and didn't warn me!"

"Well, yeah. So?"

"Buffy, she was a freaking nympho-bot for the first three days. After that she was convinced to let me rest a bit and fuel up before I went into stasis lock."

"Awe, our little Dawnie's growing up. I'm so proud!"

He glared at Faith as she pretended to sniff and wipe a tear from her eye.

"That's not the most of it though."

"Oh?"

"yup."

They all stilled as Dawn entered the huge hall, smiling serenely, and humming to herself as she carried a stack of washing supplies towards Xander's quarters. He had the only bot-sized shower unit after all.

"What's the what then? She was all glowy."

"Well, we actually have a question for Willow."

"Oh?"

"Yup."

"Well spill it already."

"Willow, would you be the godmother?"

There was dead silence.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"""**WHAT!?!?**"""

Dawn smirked, angling one of the showerheads to hit the plating on her shoulder as she scrubbed at her chest plates.

"Your daddy is so dead, baby."

The spark sidling along hers gave the equivalent of a happy hum.


	31. CH 30: She Will Be Loved

AN: THIS IS A TEAR-JERKER! You have been warned!

This chapter is dedicated to Christina, the little girl who used to live across the street, killed in a car accident when we were both 6-years-old.

* * *

"Hey honey, another job call?"

"Yeah, I'll be back in a few hours."

"Ok, take it easy."

"Will do. I'll say hi to the girls for you."

"Thanks, hun."

A kiss to the cheek and he was out the door, coat buttoned up tight against the English winter chill. He couldn't help but smile a little. A job he loved, and a wife who loved him. Things he never thought he'd have, and he had both.

Life was good.

* * *

"Hey, Sweetheart."

A little girl with big green eyes looked around, a bit confused as to where the nice voice was coming from.

"Hello."

Suddenly, he was just there, all in white and somehow she just felt warm and toasty standing near him.

"Hello, I'm Janna."

"Well Janna, I'm Xander."

"Nice to meet you." The girl gave a little curtsy that made his heart melt.

"Nice to meet you too. Now, do you know why I'm here?"

"Momma told me that people like you take good people to the Good Place."

"That's true. Do you know who I'm here for now?"

The little girl looked confused for a moment even as he crouched to look her in the eye.

"I'm here to take you Home, Sweetheart."

"Can momma come too?"

"No, it's not her time yet."

"But, I'll miss momma."

"I know sweetie, and I'm sorry. But look at it this way. You can find out everything there is to know up there, plus your great-grandma Willow is so looking forward to meeting you."

"G-Grammy Willow? The one who did all that magic stuff and saved the world?"

"Yup, that's the one. Bestest best friends with her since before I was your age."

"You've known her that long!?"

The look of sheer childish disbelief made him laugh.

"Yup! And Willow's friends are up there too, Buffy and Giles and Kendra and Angel and.."

"That's a lot of people."

"Yup. And they're all gonna love you as soon as they see you."

"Promise?"

"I promise. And you know it's true, right?"

"Yup, cuz angels don't lie."

He kept chatting with little Janna, telling her about Willow, and Giles and Buffy and that funny, funny fur ball –musician whose hair was always changing colors, turning his back on the horrific car accident not even a block away. He was sad that her life was cut so short.

But she was going to be so loved.

* * *

"Honey? Wake up?"

"Andrew? Where's Janna?"

The sad look on her husband's face told everything.

"I saw him."

"Who?"

"Alexander. I saw him carrying her. I know I did."

There were stories in the Council going back to its rebuilding over three centuries ago. The boy who became an angel and the girl made from the Key. Of the Last Single Slayer, the White Witch of Red Tree, the Father of Heroes and all their friends. They had all been real people, her own work as a Watcher confirmed it through years of study. But while she could find death records for most of them, she never found them for Alexander and Dawn.

The legends said that one day, they simply walked out of the house to take on their 'new jobs' and weren't seen or heard from again.

The New Hope and the Loving Angel. One to give hope when it was needed and the other to comfort and guide the lost Home.

And the man she's seen at the accident that lost Janna to them looked just like the old photograph.

From the look on her husband's face she knew he was trying to believe, but mostly thinking she was comforting herself.

"Get some rest love, we still have little Rupert and Elizabeth at home, and they're worried about their mommy."

She squeezed his hand and let herself fall asleep.

Tara Redtree's dreams were filled with visions of her little Janna in the arms of a laughing red-headed woman, playing with a man with puppy-brown eyes and a girl who smiled like the new sun.

She could swear they all had wings.


	32. CH 31: Daddy's Girl

AN: Last one for the sequel series. I hope you all enjoyed! Hint, there are more follow ups for special chapters en route!

WARNING: Creative invectives in use! Not to mention weird cusses!

* * *

"Hmm, I can't really see Giles in a suit. Or at least one that's not tweed."

"Robes, maybe?"

"Hmm, I'll think on that. Maybe a Victorian sort of look? Like a book-printer?"

"That…. Actually sounds very Gilesy. I can see him with the tucked in shirt and the arm bands and everything. And didn't you say that you guys were looking to bring in a new bookshop?"

"Hmm!"

On his lap Jill snuggled down and made another note in her notebook.

"And Jenny?"

"Fashionable magicy."

Jill looked at him, down to her current outfit, and back to him.

"Are you saying I'm not fashionable or something?"

"Absolutely not. In fact, if you were anyone else I'd tell them to just drag Jenny to your shop. It would be the easier option."

He got a peck on the nose for that and couldn't help but smile. He wasn't sure when they'd moved from being two-of-four-of-the-bestest-buds-ever to being Jill-and-Xander.

"Also need to plan something for Ken. Think she might make a good cougar? Kind of a match to Oz's wolf?"

"Huh, that could work. Or end up horribly. Maybe a coyote? Quick and agile and very, very sneaky?"

"I like it, and it seems to fit more. Can't wait to get those two fixed up, Oz'll be great when we get rid of that taint. Plus, puppy-pile cuteness is always a bonus."

Jill smiled, adding more sketches and notes to her book. He was going to have to get her another one soon. Not that he minded, a guaranteed good gift was a new journal, be it leather or plastic or some sort of fabric so long as it had a lot of pages and was reasonably durable.

She was like Willow in that, though Willow tended to pick up more pens and quills for some reason.

Looking over at Willow and her own smile, he really had to thank their luck.

"Still not working."

"And now?"

"Nope."

"Now?"

"Nada."

"Come on."

"Zilch."

"Willow!"

"Jesse, no matter how many times you try, you will not be able to phase through my clothes to give me a grope-and-or-leer."

"You suck the joy out of life."

The four stopped what they were doing. Three sets of eyes turned and focused on the ghost.

"…. Maybe I should rephrase that."

Jill clung to him as she laughed, rosy color rising in her cheeks. Willow was laughing so hard she almost fell out of her chair, the flames on her hair turning bright gold to match her mood.

He himself, needed to be a bit more careful about laughing his ass off.

Literally.

"Let's go meet up with the others. I want some brainstorming help and I need to borrow one of Giles' books to figure out that last bit of the spell."

"Ok, hun."

She still gave him a goofy smile every time he called her that.

Worth the effort of keeping that habit to make his little batty-girl happy.

"Pendants on!"

"Oh! Right."

* * *

"Oh this is too good."

Angelus looked over the group he'd managed to corner inside the library. He'd been pissed when the gypsy was able to get away from him. He was also pissed that the new Slayers, what was her name, Kendra?, had managed to get away from his childe. This group would make a nice compensation.

"Who's the cave-brow?"

"That would be Angelus, hun."

The pale girl's eyebrows rose and he found himself unreasonably intrigued. The boy smelled pretty much the same he always did, as did the little witch-in-training. The librarian never seemed to smell of anything other than old books and tea. The Slayers smelled like dust and death as always, and that techno witch smelled like wires, ozone and old herbs.

The girl, though, she smelled like dark nights and magic and a bit of something undefined.

He growled in delight and let his features shift.

"I think I'm going to enjoy taking your first. Might even make the boy watch."

Xander leapt forward then, features furious even as Angelus casually brought up a sword and separated his head from his shoulders.

"Xander!"

Willow stared in shock as her best friend's head landed near her feet, body slumping nearby.

"You stupid mold faced spawn of a bat nut's ass infection! I'm going to rip your eyes out for ping pong balls, shove them up your nose, punch out your teeth, break your jaw and then use that flap-trap you call a mouth as a golf ball receptacle, which by the way, will be your withered, dried up, under-sized nuts!"

Angelus had to give the girl some credit, that was a _very _vivid threat that he had no doubt she'd follow through on as soon as she could. Not to mention highly insulting. That couldn't stand, not with the minions watching.

He moved faster than even the Slayers could track and had the little pale girl wrapped in his arms. For such a bony little thing she certainly had strength to her punches and kicks. He growled again as he finally got her in a position she couldn't break anything….important.

"Ah, keep that up lass, it'll make breaking you better. What did the fool say your name was, Jill? I think I'm going to prove just how…potent I am for that last insult."

"You are in SO much trouble."

"From who? The Slayers can't do anything or I'll kill you. The witch is out, so's the gypsy, the Watcher is useless and your little boyfriend is dead."

"Get the hell away from my girlfriend!"

Angelus stopped staring at the girl in his arms and to where the body of Xander Harris lay.

Instead of seeing Willow's broken expression and the rapidly spreading pool of blood from the body like he'd expected, the little would-be-witch stood, her face a mask of fury as she held her friend's head in her hands.

The head that was talking without its body.

He could only gape as the should-be corpse levered itself up and walked over to Willow, not a drop of blood spilling anywhere.

"I warned you this would happen one day."

"It's not my fault! Being screwy would be, getting hit by an asshole with a sword, no. "

"Ok, we'll blame the walking corpse then."

"Works for me."

"How?"

The vampire couldn't seem to stop gaping at the two. Willow had moved to place Xander's head back where it belonged while his body patted his pockets.

"Aw shit. Hun, you have that little tricky thread from Fitz-Pop?"

He felt the girl wriggle a bit and drop something from her pocket. A needle with a trailer of thread flew through the air and rapidly worked its way around the boy's neck. When it was done there wasn't even a seam.

And did that little needle just squeak and nuzzle the boy's cheek!?

"Much better, remind me to thank him later."

"Sure. AFTER you get me the hell out of the sparkly child's toy rendition of Dragy who happens to have an added dose of camel twat fungi."

Xander and Willow goggled at her for a moment.

"Damn she's pissed."

"Oh yeah."

"Pendants off?"

"Hell yes."

Suddenly the human boy and the slightly magical girl were gone and in their places were a fire-headed witch and stitched-together boy.

And Angelus suddenly had a very, very bad feeling.

"Jill?"

"What scum-munch?"

"What's your sur name?"

"Skellington. The same as mine."

The vampire and the girl both looked up at the tall, thin gentleman in a pinstripe suit who'd just walked into the library, leaving a trail of dust and broken vampires behind him.

"Hi, Daddy!"

"Hello, Pumpkin."

"Skellington, as it Jack Skellington?"

The man grinned and yanked off his own pendant, the man becoming an easily recognizable skeleton.

"The one and the same."

Angelus was highly aware that he was standing in the presence of the King of the Patch, holding his daughter in a parentally-inappropriate way after having just sliced her boyfriend's head off.

There was really only one thing to say as the skeleton grinned at him.

"Oh shit."

* * *

~*~the next day~*~

"I do hope you take Jill up on the offer. She's rather good at designs and Willow's leapt ahead by leagues with her skills in spells."

"We will give it some thorough thought, and thank you kindly for the offer."

Giles shook the thin man's hand as he got into his car.

"Jill, home for dinner this weekend?"

"Sure, Daddy. Thanks again."

"Of course, Pumpkin."

The couple drove off, Jill's mother waving until they were out of sight.

"Hey Jill?"

"Yeah, Xander?"

"Where on any given earth did you learn to cuss like that!?"

He was rather surprised by her sheepish grin.

"Um, Daddy's annual meeting with the Boogies. He's nice to their faces, but when he gets home, wham!"

Angel sat in a dark corner of the library, a bit shocked with how in control he felt. He hadn't been this in control since he was human and the demon was practically silent in the face of that man. And how could one small girl inspire such fright?

In his cage, deeply chained in the recesses of Angel's being, Angelus shivered, muttering one phrase to himself over and over.

"No more pumpkins!"


	33. Exit, Stage Left

Whew! That was a bit nuttier than I expected it to be. Still, fun plotting all around. I WILL be adding other stories to this arc, but you'll have to tune in to my stories to get them (or put me on your author alert), this one is officially done! Any add-ons will be labeled as "A 31 expansion".

Thanks to everyone who reviewed and everyone who read, you keep making it fun to write.

Ciao!

~Lady A


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